Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

UCPs — unlikely calcium porters

Nature Cell Biology volume 10, pages 1235–1237 (2008)Cite this article

To the editor:

The mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) has been characterized for several decades1, but the molecule responsible for this transport activity is currently unknown. Therefore, a recent Nature Cell Biology paper by Trenker et al.2 reporting a role for uncoupling proteins (UCP2/3) in mitochondrial Ca2+ uniport generated much excitement in the field. Subsequently, the authors contend that Ca2+ transport accounts for most of the physiological effects assigned to UCPs3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Ca2+ uptake by liver and heart mitochondria; effect of UCP inhibitors.
Figure 2: Ca2+ uptake in SkM mitochondria from wild-type (WT) and Ucp3−/− mice, plus liver and kidney mitochondria from WT and Ucp2−/− mice.

References

  1. Kirichok, Y., Krapivinsky, G. & Clapham D. E . Nature. 427, 360–364 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Trenker, M., Malli, R., Fertschai, I., Levak-Frank, S. & Graier, W. F. Nature Cell Biol. 9, 445–452 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Graier, W. F., Frieden, M., & Malli, R. Pflugers Arch. 455, 375–396 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Gunter, T. E., Buntinas, L., Sparagna, G., Eliseev, R. & Gunter, K. Cell Calcium. 28, 285–296 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Stuart, J. A., Harper, J. A., Brindle, K. M., Jekabsons, M. B. & Brand, M. D. Biochem. J. 356, 779–789 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Wingrove, D. E. & Gunter, T. E. J. Biol. Chem. 261, 15159–15165 (1986).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Gunter, T. E. & Pfeiffer, D. R. Am. J. Physiol. 258, C755–C786 (1990).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Zazueta, C., Sosa-Torres, M. E., Correa, F. & Garza-Ortiz, A. J. Bioenerg. Biomembr. 31, 551–557 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Schwerzmann, K., Cruz-Orive, L. M., Eggman, R., Sänger, A., & Weibel, E. R. J. Cell Biol. 102, 97–103 (1986).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Brookes, P. S., Salinas, E. P., Darley-Usmar, K., Eiserich, J. P., Freeman, B. A., Darley-Usmar, V. M. & Anderson, P. G. J. Biol. Chem. 275, 20474–20479 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. McLeod, C. J., Aziz, A., Hoyt, R. F. Jr., McCoy, J. P. Jr. & Sack, M. N. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 33470–33476 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Echtay, K. S., Roussel, D., St-Pierre, J., Jekabsons, M. B., Cadenas, S., Stuart, J. A., Harper, J. A., Roebuck, S. J., Morrison, A., Pickering, S., Clapham, J. C. & Brand, M. D. Nature 415, 96–99 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zhang, C. Y., Parton, L. E., Ye, C. P., Krauss, S., Shen, R., Lin, C. T., Porco, J. A. Jr. & Lowell .B. B. Cell Metab. 3, 417–427 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Gong, D. W., Monemdjou, S., Gavrilova, O., Leon, L. R., Marcus-Samuels, B., Chou, C. J., Everett, C., Kozak, L. P., Li, C., Deng, C., Harper, M. E. & Reitman, M. L. J. Biol. Chem. 275, 16251–16257 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Parker, N., Affourtit, C., Vidal-Puig, A. J. & Brand, M. D. Biochem. J. 412, 131–139 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

P.S.B. is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (RO1-HL071158). M.D.B. is supported by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (065326/Z/01/Z and 066750/B/01/Z). We thank Mary-Ellen Harper (University of Ottawa, Canada) for Ucp3−/− mice, Brad Lowell (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) for Ucp2−/− mice, and Sergiy Nadtochiy (University of Rochester) for technical assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA

    Paul S. Brookes

  2. MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, Cambridge, UK

    Nadeene Parker, Julie A. Buckingham & Martin D. Brand

  3. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, UK

    Antonio Vidal-Puig

  4. Department of Biochemistry, Bristol University, UK

    Andrew P. Halestrap

  5. Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA

    Thomas E. Gunter

  6. Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, CA, USA

    David G. Nicholls & Martin D. Brand

  7. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Paolo Bernardi

  8. Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Center for Cell Death Injury and Regeneration, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    John J. Lemasters

Authors
  1. Paul S. Brookes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nadeene Parker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Julie A. Buckingham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Antonio Vidal-Puig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andrew P. Halestrap
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Thomas E. Gunter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. David G. Nicholls
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Paolo Bernardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. John J. Lemasters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Martin D. Brand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 308 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brookes, P., Parker, N., Buckingham, J. et al. UCPs — unlikely calcium porters. Nat Cell Biol 10, 1235–1237 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1108-1235

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1108-1235

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing