In vivo imaging reveals mitophagy independence in the maintenance of axonal mitochondria during normal aging

Cao X, Wang H, Wang Z, Wang Q, Zhang S, Deng Y, Fang Y

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.12654/epdf

• Study of mitophagy and aging in Drosophila
• Mitochondria become fragmented in aged mitochondria
• Lack of Pink1 or Parkin does not lead to the accumulation of axonal mitochondria or axonal degeneration
• Knockdown of core mitphagy genes Atg12 or Atg17 has little effect on turnover of axonal mitochondria or axonal integrity suggesting that mitophagy is not necessary for axonal maintainence, regardless of whether it is Pink1-Parkin dependent
• Adult onset of neuronal downregulation of fission-fusion but not mitophagy genes dramatically accelerated features of aging
• Thought: Is this partly because Drosophila generally has a short lifespan and, in some sense, die before they have the chance to get old? Are these results observable in other, longer-lived, species?