Cdk8/CDK19 Promotes Mitochondrial Fission Through Drp1 Phosphorylation and Can Phenotypically Suppress pink1 Deficiency in Drosophila

Authors

Jenny Zhe Liao
Hyung-Lok Chung
Claire Shih
Kenneth Kin Lam Wong
Debdeep Dutta
Zelha Nil
Catherine Grace Burns
Oguz Kanca
Ye-Jin Park
Zhongyuan Zuo
Paul C Marcogliese
Katherine Sew
Hugo J Bellen
Esther M Verheyen

Publication Date

4-18-2024

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-47623-8

PMID

38637532

PMCID

PMC11026413

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-18-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Animals, Humans, Phosphorylation, Drosophila, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Mitochondrial Dynamics, Cyclin-Dependent Kinases, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 8, Mitochondria, Cellular neuroscience, Ageing, Kinases

Abstract

Cdk8 in Drosophila is the orthologue of vertebrate CDK8 and CDK19. These proteins have been shown to modulate transcriptional control by RNA polymerase II. We found that neuronal loss of Cdk8 severely reduces fly lifespan and causes bang sensitivity. Remarkably, these defects can be rescued by expression of human CDK19, found in the cytoplasm of neurons, suggesting a non-nuclear function of CDK19/Cdk8. Here we show that Cdk8 plays a critical role in the cytoplasm, with its loss causing elongated mitochondria in both muscles and neurons. We find that endogenous GFP-tagged Cdk8 can be found in both the cytoplasm and nucleus. We show that Cdk8 promotes the phosphorylation of Drp1 at S616, a protein required for mitochondrial fission. Interestingly, Pink1, a mitochondrial kinase implicated in Parkinson's disease, also phosphorylates Drp1 at the same residue. Indeed, overexpression of Cdk8 significantly suppresses the phenotypes observed in flies with low levels of Pink1, including elevated levels of ROS, mitochondrial dysmorphology, and behavioral defects. In summary, we propose that Pink1 and Cdk8 perform similar functions to promote Drp1-mediated fission.

Comments

Associated Data