The mechanism of MICU-dependent gating of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter
- University of Maryland, United States
- University of California San Francisco, United States
- University of Maryland Baltimore, United States
- University of Maryland School of Medicine, United States
Abstract
Ca2+ entry into mitochondria is through the mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex (MCUcx), a Ca2+-selective channel composed of five subunit types. Two MCUcx subunits (MCU and EMRE) span the inner mitochondrial membrane, while three Ca2+-regulatory subunits (MICU1, MICU2 and MICU3) reside in the intermembrane space. Here we provide rigorous analysis of Ca2+ and Na+ fluxes via MCUcx in intact isolated mitochondria to understand the function of MICU subunits. We also perform direct patch clamp recordings of macroscopic and single MCUcx currents to gain further mechanistic insight. This comprehensive analysis shows that the MCUcx pore, composed of the EMRE and MCU subunits, is not occluded nor plugged by MICUs during the absence or presence of extramitochondrial Ca2+ as has been widely reported. Instead, MICUs potentiate activity of MCUcx as extramitochondrial Ca2+ is elevated. MICUs achieve this by modifying the gating properties of MCUcx allowing it to spend more time in the open state.
Data availability
Due to the size of the dataset, raw electrophysiology traces are available on request to the corresponding author. All information has been extracted from the raw electrophysiological traces and is available to download as source data files. All the codes or software used in analyzing the data and their sources are listed in the Key Resources Table.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01GM134536)
- Yuriy Kirichok
National Institutes of Health (R35GM136415)
- Yuriy Kirichok
American Heart Association (17SDG33660926)
- Vivek Garg
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were performed according to procedures approved by the UCSF Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (approval # AN183460-02A) and adhered to NIH standards.
Copyright
© 2021, Garg et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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The mechanism of MICU-dependent gating of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter
eLife 10:e69312.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.69312
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