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MTCH2/MIMP is a major facilitator of tBID recruitment to mitochondria

Nature Cell Biology volume 12, pages 553–562 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The BH3-only BID protein (BH3-interacting domain death agonist) has a critical function in the death-receptor pathway in the liver by triggering mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP). Here we show that MTCH2/MIMP (mitochondrial carrier homologue 2/Met-induced mitochondrial protein), a novel truncated BID (tBID)-interacting protein, is a surface-exposed outer mitochondrial membrane protein that facilitates the recruitment of tBID to mitochondria. Knockout of MTCH2/MIMP in embryonic stem cells and in mouse embryonic fibroblasts hinders the recruitment of tBID to mitochondria, the activation of Bax/Bak, MOMP, and apoptosis. Moreover, conditional knockout of MTCH2/MIMP in the liver decreases the sensitivity of mice to Fas-induced hepatocellular apoptosis and prevents the recruitment of tBID to liver mitochondria both in vivo and in vitro. In contrast, MTCH2/MIMP deletion had no effect on apoptosis induced by other pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members and no detectable effect on the outer membrane lipid composition. These loss-of-function models indicate that MTCH2/MIMP has a critical function in liver apoptosis by regulating the recruitment of tBID to mitochondria.

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Figure 1: MTCH2/MIMP is an outer mitochondrial membrane protein.
Figure 2: Loss of MTCH2/MIMP in ES cells decreases the sensitivity to tBID-induced MOMP.
Figure 3: Conditional knockout of MTCH2/MIMP in MEFs decreases the sensitivity to tBID-induced apoptosis.
Figure 4: Conditional knockout of MTCH2/MIMP in MEFs hinders the recruitment of tBID to mitochondria.
Figure 5: MTCH2/MIMP deletion in the liver decreases the sensitivity of mice to Fas-induced hepatocellular apoptosis and hinders the recruitment of tBID to mitochondria.
Figure 6: MTCH2/MIMP deletion in the liver prevents the in vitro import of tBID.
Figure 7: MTCH2/MIMP deletion in the liver has no effect on the levels of CL in whole mitochondria and the OMM.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to S. Jung for advice regarding the animal studies; A. Harmelin, R. Haffner, A. Maizenberg, G. Damari and T. Berkutzki for help with the animal and ES cell studies; H. van Lenthe and F. Stet for technical assistance with the phospholipid analysis; T. Langer (University of Cologne) for the TAT-Cre plasmid; T. S. Tanaka (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for DNA probes for Brachyury; D. Wallach (Weizmann Institute) for anti-Fas antibodies; and R. Marcellus (McGill University) for recombinant adenoviruses. This study was supported in part by the USA–Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Apulia Region, and the University of Bari. It was also supported by a grant of the Prinses Beatrix Fonds to F.M.V. and grants of the Barth Syndrome Foundation to W.K. and F.M.V. A.G. is the incumbent of the Armour Family Career Development Chair of cancer research. E.A.J. is funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Minority Access to Research Careers U*STAR Scholarship, and S.W. is funded by a NIH National Research Service Award.

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Author notes

  1. Yehudit Zaltsman and Liat Shachnai: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Regulation, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Yehudit Zaltsman, Liat Shachnai, Natalie Yivgi-Ohana, Michal Schwarz, Maria Maryanovich & Atan Gross

  2. Laboratory for Integrative and Systems Physiology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Riekelt H. Houtkooper

  3. Department of Clinical Chemistry and Pediatrics, University of Amsterdam, 1100 DE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frédéric Maxime Vaz

  4. Department of Pharmaco-Biology, University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Francesco De Leonardis, Giuseppe Fiermonte & Ferdinando Palmieri

  5. Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Tumor Immunology, University Medical Center Charité, Humboldt University, 13125, Berlin, Germany

    Bernhard Gillissen & Peter T. Daniel

  6. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Erin Jimenez, Susan Walsh & Carla M. Koehler

  7. Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, 19107, Pennsylvania, USA

    Soumya Sinha Roy, Ludivine Walter & György Hajnóczky

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Contributions

Y.Z., L.S, N.Y.-O., M.S. and M.M. performed most of the experiments that characterized the knockout mice and cells. R.H.H and F.M.V. performed the phospholipid analysis. F.D.L, G.F. and F.P. assessed the carrier activity of MTCH2/MIMP. B.G. and P.T.D. prepared the Bim recombinant adenoviruses. E.J., S.W. and C.M.K. performed the studies of import into yeast mitochondria. Y.Z., L.S. and A.G. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Atan Gross.

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Zaltsman, Y., Shachnai, L., Yivgi-Ohana, N. et al. MTCH2/MIMP is a major facilitator of tBID recruitment to mitochondria. Nat Cell Biol 12, 553–562 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2057

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