Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Differential Regulation Of Dynamin-Related Protein 1 Splice Variants By Membrane Adaptors, Anthony J. Baglio

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

We begin the first biochemical examination of the multiple splice variants of human Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), a GTPase involved in mitochondrial fission. While eight such variants, generated through alternative mRNA splicing, have been identified, here we focus on two: the shortest variant (Short) which is ubiquitous, and the longest (Long), which piqued our interest since Drp1 Long is expressed exclusively in neurons. We now establish the various functional differences between these two Drp1 splice variants. Our data reveal that whereas Drp1 Short exhibits constitutively high GTPase activity, Drp1 Long does not. Interestingly, mitochondrial outer membrane proteins, mitochondrial fission protein …