Microtubule-directed transport of purine metabolons drives their cytosolic transit to mitochondria

49Citations
Citations of this article
58Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

To meet their purine demand, cells activate the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway and transiently cluster the pathway enzymes into metabolons called purinosomes. Recently, we have shown that purinosomes were spatially colocalized with mitochondria and microtubules, yet it remained unclear as to what drives these associations and whether a relationship between them exist. Here, we employed superresolution imaging methods to describe purinosome transit in the context of subcellular localization. Time-resolved imaging of purinosomes showed that these assemblies exhibit directed motion as they move along a microtubule toward mitochondria, where upon colocalization, a change in purinosome motion was observed. A majority of purinosomes colocalized with mitochondria were also deemed colocalized with microtubules. Nocodazole-dependent microtubule depolymerization resulted in a loss in the purinosome–mitochondria colocalization, suggesting that the association of purinosomes with mitochondria is facilitated by microtubule-directed transport, and thereby supporting our notion of an interdependency between these subcellular components in maximizing purine production through the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Chan, C. Y., Pedley, A. M., Kim, D., Xia, C., Zhuang, X., & Benkovic, S. J. (2018). Microtubule-directed transport of purine metabolons drives their cytosolic transit to mitochondria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(51), 13009–13014. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1814042115

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free