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Full-Text Articles in Medical Biochemistry
Novel Roles For Actin In Mitochondrial Fission, Anna L. Hatch, Pinar S. Gurel, Henry N. Higgs
Novel Roles For Actin In Mitochondrial Fission, Anna L. Hatch, Pinar S. Gurel, Henry N. Higgs
Dartmouth Scholarship
Mitochondrial dynamics, including fusion, fission and translocation, are crucial to cellular homeostasis, with roles in cellular polarity, stress response and apoptosis. Mitochondrial fission has received particular attention, owing to links with several neurodegenerative diseases. A central player in fission is the cytoplasmic dynamin-related GTPase Drp1, which oligomerizes at the fission site and hydrolyzes GTP to drive membrane ingression. Drp1 recruitment to the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) is a key regulatory event, which appears to require a pre-constriction step in which the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrion interact extensively, a process termed ERMD (ER-associated mitochondrial division). It is unclear how ER-mitochondrial …