Novel insights into Cofilin's function upon regulating mitochondrial respiration, multi-drug resistance & stress response in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

• Main Author: Kotiadis, Vassilios N.
• Published: University of Kent 2012
• Subjects: 579.563
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.593915

Cofilin is a well-studied actin binding and regulatory protein that functions to control the dynamic status of the cytoskeleton. Recent evidence also impl icates cofilin in the regulation of mitochondrial function during response to exogenous and intracellular stress. Here we provide evidence that cofilin regulates mitochondrial function via a post-transcriptional mechanism to facilitate an increase in respiratory capacity as well as a concomitant multi-drug resistance response in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae. Changes to the surface cbarge of cofilin that do not interfere with its actin regulatory functions lead to an increase in respiratory function and the upregulation of a battery of ABC transporters leading to multi-drug resistance. Moreover, there is evidence that the overall alterations in cellular function includes metabolic and stress signalling through the activation of MAPK components. We hypothesise tbat cofilinlmitochondrial interactions form part of a novel bio-sensing system. which connects the cytoskeleton and mitochondrial function to environmental change.