Role of the lipid transport protein StarD7 in mitochondrial dynamics

ROJAS, MARÍA L.; CRUZ DEL PUERTO, MARIANO M.; FLORES-MARTÍN, JÉSICA; RACCA, ANA C.; KOURDOVA, LUCILLE T.; MIRANDA, ANDREA L.; PANZETTA-DUTARI, GRACIELA M.; GENTI-RAIMONDI, SUSANA

BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY OF LIPIDS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2021 vol. 1866

1388-1981

itochondria are dynamic organelles crucial for cell function and survival implicated in oxidative energy production whose central functions are tightly controlled by lipids. StarD7 is a lipid transport protein involved in the phosphatidylcholine (PC) delivery to mitochondria. Previous studies have shown that StarD7 knockdown induces alterations in mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with a reduction in PC content, however whether StarD7 modulates mitochondrial dynamics remains unexplored. Here, we generated HTR-8/SVneo stable cells expressing the precursor StarD7.I and the mature processed StarD7.II isoforms. We demonstrated that StarD7.I overexpression altered mitochondrial morphology increasing its fragmentation, whereas no changes were observed in StarD7.II-overexpressing cells compared to the control (Ct) stable cells. StarD7.I (D7.I) stable cells were able to transport higher fluorescent PC analog to mitochondria than Ct cells, yield mitochondrial fusions, maintained the