Mitochondrial fusion is essential for steroid biosynthesis.

ALEJANDRA DUARTE, CECILIA PODEROSO, MARIANA COOKE, GASTO ́N SORIA, FABIANA CORNEJO MACIEL, VANESA GOTTIFREDI, ERNESTO J. PODESTA

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2012 vol. 7 p. 1 - 1

lthough the contribution of mitochondrial dynamics (a balance in fusion/fission events and changes in mitochondria subcellular distribution) to key biological process has been reported, the contribution of changes in mitochondrial fusion to achieve efficient steroid production has never been explored. The mitochondria are central during steroid synthesis and different enzymes are localized between the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum to produce the final steroid hormone, thus suggesting that mitochondrial fusion might be relevant for this process. In the present study, we showed that the hormonal stimulation triggers mitochondrial fusion into tubular-shaped structures and we demonstrated that mitochondrial fusion does not only correlate-with but also is an essential step of steroid production, being both events depend on PKA activity. We also demonstrated that the hormone-stimulated relocalization of ERK1/2 in the mitochondrion, a critical step during steroidogenesis, depend