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Aims: Knockout (KO) of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) in mice abrogates mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake and permeability transition pore (PTP) opening. However, hearts from global MCU-KO mice are not protected from ischaemic injury. We aimed to investigate whether adaptive alterations occur in cell death signalling pathways in the hearts of global MCU-KO mice., Methods and Results: First, we examined whether cell death may occur via an upregulation in necroptosis in MCU-KO mice. However, our results show that neither RIP1 inhibition nor RIP3 knockout afford protection against ischaemia-reperfusion injury in MCU-KO as in wildtype (WT) hearts, indicating that the lack of protection cannot be explained by upregulation of necroptosis. Instead, we have identified alterations in cyclophilin D (CypD) signalling in MCU-KO hearts. In the presence of a calcium ionophore, MCU-KO mitochondria take up calcium and do undergo PTP opening. Furthermore, PTP opening in MCU-KO mitochondria has a lower calcium retention capacity (CRC), suggesting that the calcium sensitivity of PTP is higher. Phosphoproteomics identified an increase in phosphorylation of CypD-S42 in MCU-KO. We investigated the interaction of CypD with the putative PTP component ATP synthase and identified an approximately 50% increase in this interaction in MCU-KO cardiac mitochondria. Mutation of the novel CypD phosphorylation site S42 to a phosphomimic reduced CRC, increased CypD-ATP synthase interaction by approximately 50%, and increased cell death in comparison to a phospho-resistant mutant., Conclusion: Taken together these data suggest that MCU-KO mitochondria exhibit an increase in phosphorylation of CypD-S42 which decreases PTP calcium sensitivity thus allowing activation of PTP in the absence of an MCU-mediated increase in matrix calcium.

Aims: Nitric oxide (NO) and protein S-nitrosylation (SNO) play important roles in ischemic preconditioning (IPC)-induced cardioprotection. Mitochondria are key regulators of preconditioning, and most proteins showing an increase in SNO with IPC are mitochondrial. The aim of this study was to address how IPC transduces NO/SNO signaling to mitochondria in the heart., Results: In this study using Langendorff perfused mouse hearts, we found that IPC-induced cardioprotection was blocked by treatment with either N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, a constitutive NO synthase inhibitor), ascorbic acid (a reducing agent to decompose SNO), or methyl-?-cyclodextrin (M?CD, a cholesterol sequestering agent to disrupt caveolae). IPC not only activated AKT/eNOS signaling but also led to translocation of eNOS to mitochondria. M?CD treatment disrupted caveolar structure, leading to dissociation of eNOS from caveolin-3 and blockade of IPC-induced activation of the AKT/eNOS signaling pathway. A significant increase in mitochondrial SNO was found in IPC hearts compared to perfusion control, and the disruption of caveolae by M?CD treatment not only abolished IPC-induced cardioprotection, but also blocked the IPC-induced increase in SNO., Innovation: These results provide mechanistic insight into how caveolae/eNOS/NO/SNO signaling mediates cardioprotection induced by IPC., Conclusion: Altogether these results suggest that caveolae transduce eNOS/NO/SNO cardioprotective signaling in the heart.

Succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS) is the only mitochondrial enzyme capable of ATP production via substrate level phosphorylation in the absence of oxygen, but it also plays a key role in the citric acid cycle, ketone metabolism, and heme synthesis. Inorganic phosphate (P(i)) is a signaling molecule capable of activating oxidative phosphorylation at several sites, including NADH generation and as a substrate for ATP formation. In this study, it was shown that P(i) binds the porcine heart SCS alpha-subunit (SCSalpha) in a noncovalent manner and enhances its enzymatic activity, thereby providing a new target for P(i) activation in mitochondria. Coupling 32P labeling of intact mitochondria with SDS gel electrophoresis revealed that 32P labeling of SCSalpha was enhanced in substrate-depleted mitochondria. Using mitochondrial extracts and purified bacterial SCS (BSCS), we showed that this enhanced 32P labeling resulted from a simple binding of 32P, not covalent protein phosphorylation. The ability of SCSalpha to retain its 32P throughout the SDS denaturing gel process was unique over the entire mitochondrial proteome. In vitro studies also revealed a P(i)-induced activation of SCS activity by more than 2-fold when mitochondrial extracts and purified BSCS were incubated with millimolar concentrations of P(i). Since the level of 32P binding to SCSalpha was increased in substrate-depleted mitochondria, where the matrix P(i) concentration is increased, we conclude that SCS activation by P(i) binding represents another mitochondrial target for the P(i)-induced activation of oxidative phosphorylation and anaerobic ATP production in energy-limited mitochondria.

Protein phosphorylation is a well-characterized regulatory mechanism in the cytosol, but remains poorly defined in the mitochondrion. In this study, we characterized the use of (32)P-labeling to monitor the turnover of protein phosphorylation in the heart and liver mitochondria matrix. The (32)P labeling technique was compared and contrasted to Phos-tag protein phosphorylation fluorescent stain and 2D isoelectric focusing. Of the 64 proteins identified by MS spectroscopy in the Phos-Tag gels, over 20 proteins were correlated with (32)P labeling. The high sensitivity of (32)P incorporation detected proteins well below the mass spectrometry and even 2D gel protein detection limits. Phosphate-chase experiments revealed both turnover and phosphate associated protein pool size alterations dependent on initial incubation conditions. Extensive weak phosphate/phosphate metabolite interactions were observed using nondisruptive native gels, providing a novel approach to screen for potential allosteric interactions of phosphate metabolites with matrix proteins. We confirmed the phosphate associations in Complexes V and I due to their critical role in oxidative phosphorylation and to validate the 2D methods. These complexes were isolated by immunocapture, after (32)P labeling in the intact mitochondria, and revealed (32)P-incorporation for the alpha, beta, gamma, OSCP, and d subunits in Complex V and the 75, 51, 42, 23, and 13a kDa subunits in Complex I. These results demonstrate that a dynamic and extensive mitochondrial matrix phosphoproteome exists in heart and liver.

Protein phosphorylations, as well as phosphate metabolite binding, are well characterized post-translational mechanisms that regulate enzyme activity in the cytosol, but remain poorly defined in mitochondria. Recently extensive matrix protein phosphorylation sites have been discovered but their functional significance is unclear. Herein we describe methods of using (32)P labeling of intact mitochondria to determine the dynamic pools of protein phosphorylation as well as phosphate metabolite association. This screening approach may be useful in not only characterizing the dynamics of these pools, but also provide insight into which phosphorylation sites have a functional significance. Using the mitochondrial ATP synthetic capacity under appropriate conditions, inorganic (32)P was added to energized mitochondria to generate high specific activity gamma-P(32)-ATP in the matrix. In general, SDS denaturing and gel electrophoresis was used to primarily follow protein phosphorylation, whereas native gel techniques were used to observe weaker metabolite associations since the structure of mitochondrial complexes was minimally affected. The protein phosphorylation and metabolite association within the matrix was found to be extensive using these approaches. (32)P labeling in 2D gels was detected in over 40 proteins, including most of the complexes of the cytochrome chain and proteins associated with intermediary metabolism, biosynthetic pathways, membrane transport, and reactive oxygen species metabolism. (32)P pulse-chase experiments further revealed the overall dynamics of these processes that included phosphorylation site turnover as well as phosphate-protein pool size alterations. The high sensitivity of (32)P resulted in many proteins being intensely labeled, but not identified due to the sensitivity limitations of mass spectrometry. These low concentration proteins may represent signaling proteins within the matrix. These results demonstrate that the mitochondrial matrix phosphoproteome is both extensive and dynamic. The use of this, in situ, labeling approach is extremely valuable in confirming protein phosphorylation sites as well as examining the dynamics of these processes under near physiological conditions.

Post-translational modification of mitochondrial proteins by phosphorylation or dephosphorylation plays an essential role in numerous cell signaling pathways involved in regulating energy metabolism and in mitochondrion-induced apoptosis. Here we present a phosphoproteomic screen of the mitochondrial matrix proteins and begin to establish the protein phosphorylations acutely associated with calcium ions (Ca(2+)) signaling in porcine heart mitochondria. Forty-five phosphorylated proteins were detected by gel electrophoresis-mass spectrometry of Pro-Q Diamond staining, while many more Pro-Q Diamond-stained proteins evaded mass spectrometry detection. Time-dependent (32)P incorporation in intact mitochondria confirmed the extensive matrix protein phosphoryation and revealed the dynamic nature of this process. Classes of proteins that were detected included all of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes, as well as enzymes involved in intermediary metabolism, such as pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), citrate synthase, and acyl-CoA dehydrogenases. These data demonstrate that the phosphoproteome of the mitochondrial matrix is extensive and dynamic. Ca(2+) has previously been shown to activate various dehydrogenases, promote the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and initiate apoptosis via cytochrome c release. To evaluate the Ca(2+) signaling network, the effects of a Ca(2+) challenge sufficient to release cytochrome c were evaluated on the mitochondrial phosphoproteome. Novel Ca(2+)-induced dephosphorylation was observed in manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) as well as the previously characterized PDH. A Ca(2+) dose-dependent dephosphorylation of MnSOD was associated with an approximately 2-fold maximum increase in activity; neither the dephosphorylation nor activity changes were induced by ROS production in the absence of Ca(2+). These data demonstrate the use of a phosphoproteome screen in determining mitochondrial signaling pathways and reveal new pathways for Ca(2+) modification of mitochondrial function at the level of MnSOD.