Autophagy and the degradation of mitochondria

Abstract

The cellular process of macromolecular degradation known as macroautophagy has long been known to play a role in the elimination of mitochondria. Over the past decade, much progress has been made in the development of systems by which the nature and mechanism of mitochondria degradation may be studied. Recent findings imply that the degradation of mitochondria via autophagy may be more specific and more tightly regulated than originally thought, and have led to designation of this specific type of autophagy as "mitophagy". In this review we provide a brief history of the development of mitophagy models and their associated discoveries.

Fig. 1

Experimental conditions known to trigger mitophagy in yeast and mammals.

Fig. 2

Mitophagy is critical for normal adipocytes differentiation. Mice with a targeted deletion of the essential autophagy-related gene Atg7 in adipose tissue show increased mitochondria content. LD: lipid droplet; N: nucleus; WAT: white adipose tissue; BAT: brown adipose tissue.