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Calcium dynamics control synaptic transmission. Calcium triggers synaptic vesicle fusion, determines release probability, modulates vesicle recycling, participates in long-term plasticity and regulates cellular metabolism. Mitochondria, the main source of cellular energy, serve as calcium signaling hubs. Mitochondrial calcium transients are primarily determined by the balance between calcium influx, mediated by the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU), and calcium efflux through the sodium/lithium/calcium exchanger (NCLX). We identified a human recessive missense SLC8B1 variant that impairs NCLX activity and is associated with severe mental retardation. On this basis, we examined the effect of deleting NCLX in mice on mitochondrial and synaptic calcium homeostasis, synaptic activity, and plasticity. Neuronal mitochondria exhibited basal calcium overload, membrane depolarization, and a reduction in the amplitude and rate of calcium influx and efflux. We observed smaller cytoplasmic calcium transients in the presynaptic terminals of NCLX-KO neurons, leading to a lower probability of release and weaker transmission. In agreement, synaptic facilitation in NCLX-KO hippocampal slices was enhanced. Importantly, deletion of NCLX abolished long term potentiation of Schaffer collateral synapses. Our results show that NCLX controls presynaptic calcium transients that are crucial for defining synaptic strength as well as short- and long-term plasticity, key elements of learning and memory processes.

Calcium (Ca2+) influx into mitochondria occurs through a Ca2+-selective uniporter channel, which regulates essential cellular processes in eukaryotic organisms. Previous evolutionary analyses of its pore-forming subunits MCU and EMRE, and gatekeeper MICU1, pinpointed an evolutionary paradox: the presence of MCU homologs in fungal species devoid of any other uniporter components and of mt-Ca2+ uptake. Here, we trace the mt-Ca2+ uniporter evolution across 1,156 fully-sequenced eukaryotes and show that animal and fungal MCUs represent two distinct paralogous subfamilies originating from an ancestral duplication. Accordingly, we find EMRE orthologs outside Holoza and uncover the existence of an animal-like uniporter within chytrid fungi, which enables mt-Ca2+ uptake when reconstituted in vivo in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our study represents the most comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of the mt-Ca2+ uptake system and demonstrates that MCU, EMRE, and MICU formed the core of the ancestral opisthokont uniporter, with major implications for comparative structural and functional studies., The mitochondrial calcium uptake system, crucial for cellular processes, evolved in ancient eukaryotes. Here, authors perform a phylogenomic analysis across 1,156 eukaryotes, and show that previously identified animal and fungal genes in this system originated from an ancestral duplication.

Mitochondrial calcium uptake has a central role in cell physiology by stimulating ATP production, shaping cytosolic calcium transients and regulating cell death. The biophysical properties of mitochondrial calcium uptake have been studied in detail, but the underlying proteins remain elusive. Here we use an integrative strategy to predict human genes involved in mitochondrial calcium entry based on clues from comparative physiology, evolutionary genomics and organelle proteomics. RNA interference against 13 top candidates highlighted one gene, CBARA1, that we call hereafter mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1). Silencing MICU1 does not disrupt mitochondrial respiration or membrane potential but abolishes mitochondrial calcium entry in intact and permeabilized cells, and attenuates the metabolic coupling between cytosolic calcium transients and activation of matrix dehydrogenases. MICU1 is associated with the mitochondrial inner membrane and has two canonical EF hands that are essential for its activity, indicating a role in calcium sensing. MICU1 represents the founding member of a set of proteins required for high-capacity mitochondrial calcium uptake. Its discovery may lead to the complete molecular characterization of mitochondrial calcium uptake pathways, and offers genetic strategies for understanding their contribution to normal physiology and disease.

Most cells have the inherent capacity to shift their reliance on glycolysis relative to oxidative metabolism, and studies in model systems have shown that targeting such shifts may be useful in treating or preventing a variety of diseases ranging from cancer to ischemic injury. However, we currently have a limited number of mechanistically distinct classes of drugs that alter the relative activities of these two pathways. We screen for such compounds by scoring the ability of >3,500 small molecules to selectively impair growth and viability of human fibroblasts in media containing either galactose or glucose as the sole sugar source. We identify several clinically used drugs never linked to energy metabolism, including the antiemetic meclizine, which attenuates mitochondrial respiration through a mechanism distinct from that of canonical inhibitors. We further show that meclizine pretreatment confers cardioprotection and neuroprotection against ischemia-reperfusion injury in murine models. Nutrient-sensitized screening may provide a useful framework for understanding gene function and drug action within the context of energy metabolism.