Oxidative Stress Impairs Cell Death by Repressing the Nuclease Activity of Mitochondrial Endonuclease G.

Jason L J Lin, Akihisa Nakagawa, Riley Skeen-Gaar, Wei-Zen Yang, Pei Zhao, Zhe Zhang, Xiao Ge, Shohei Mitani, Ding Xue, Hanna S Yuan

Cell reports 2016 Jul 12

filter terms:

Endonuclease G (EndoG) is a mitochondrial protein that is released from mitochondria and relocated into the nucleus to promote chromosomal DNA fragmentation during apoptosis. Here, we show that oxidative stress causes cell-death defects in C. elegans through an EndoG-mediated cell-death pathway. In response to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, homodimeric CPS-6-the C. elegans homolog of EndoG-is dissociated into monomers with diminished nuclease activity. Conversely, the nuclease activity of CPS-6 is enhanced, and its dimeric structure is stabilized by its interaction with the worm AIF homolog, WAH-1, which shifts to disulfide cross-linked dimers under high ROS levels. CPS-6 thus acts as a ROS sensor to regulate the life and death of cells. Modulation of the EndoG dimer conformation could present an avenue for prevention and treatment of diseases resulting from oxidative stress. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Jason L J Lin, Akihisa Nakagawa, Riley Skeen-Gaar, Wei-Zen Yang, Pei Zhao, Zhe Zhang, Xiao Ge, Shohei Mitani, Ding Xue, Hanna S Yuan. Oxidative Stress Impairs Cell Death by Repressing the Nuclease Activity of Mitochondrial Endonuclease G. Cell reports. 2016 Jul 12;16(2):279-287