Mitophagy in yeast: A screen of mitophagy-deficient mutants

Abstract

Mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy) is a process that selectively degrades mitochondria via autophagy. Recent studies have shown that mitophagy plays an important role in mitochondrial homeostasis by degrading damaged or excess mitochondria. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a powerful model organism that has been employed to study several biological phenomena. Recently, there has been significant progress in the understanding of mitophagy in yeast following the identification of Atg32, a mitochondrial outer membrane receptor protein for mitophagy. In this chapter, we describe protocols to study mitophagy in yeast via a genome-wide screen for mitophagy-deficient mutants using fluorescence microscopy and immunoblotting.