Joseph P.Even when the genes for PINK1, Parkin, and DJ-1 are all deleted in mice, it still does not cause the same loss of dopaminergic #neuron s seen in #Parkinson's disease patients. This suggests that there may be other pathways that can compensate for the loss of #PINK1 and #Parkin, such as increased transcription of other E3 #ubiquitin ligases in the hearts of Parkin-knockout mice.
The text is discussing the idea of mitochondrial quality control pathways, which are processes that help keep mitochondria healthy. The text is suggesting that there may be alternate pathways that can be used to maintain mitochondrial health, rather than waiting until the mitochondria are completely depolarized before triggering their removal.
t is comparing this idea to the idea of maintaining a car, where it is better to perform regular maintenance and repairs rather than waiting until the car is completely broken down before replacing it.
Like a car, mitochondria can be maintained through preventative maintenance, such as replacing worn parts, and that more serious damage can be repaired by removing and replacing individual components. It also suggests that, like a car, #mitochondria can be repaired
by removing and replacing damaged parts, but on a smaller scale. The different types of maintenance and repair may be part of a continuum, rather than distinct categories.
#Mitophagy and mitochondrial dynamism are two processes that are closely connected. Mitophagy is the process of removing damaged #mitochondria from the #cell, while mitochondrial dynamism is the process of mitochondria fusing together and separating.
The two processes work together to keep the cell healthy by eliminating damaged mitochondria and preventing healthy mitochondria from being contaminated by the damaged ones. The protein #Mfn2 plays a role in both processes, acting as a factor for mitochondrial fusion when it is not acted on by #PINK1 and as a receptor for #Parkin when it is. This suggests that the two processes are mutually exclusive, meaning that they cannot happen at the same time.
This helps to protect healthy #mitochondria from being contaminated by the damaged ones. Finally, the involvement of PINK1 and Parkin in multiple mitochondrial quality control mechanisms shows that there are multiple ways to keep the #mitochondria healthy, which is important for preventing chronic degenerative diseases and providing opportunities for #therapeutic intervention.
Suzanne van der Laan@tonic Thank you very much for this explanation. I do believe this is also interesting for metabolic diseases. Mabe it is to early now, but i wil keep it in mind.