Macroautophagy in quiescent and senescent cells: a pathway to longevity?

Cellular quiescence - reversible exit from the cell cycle - is an important feature of many cell types important for organismal health. Aging and cellular dysfunction compromise the survival and reactivation of quiescent cells over time. Studies suggest that autophagic processes and lysosomal function are critical to maintaining the function of quiescent cells, especially adult stem cells, throughout life. Findings also point to both pro-senescence and anti-senescence functions for macroautophagy depending on context. In this review, we will discuss these findings, unanswered questions on the role of macroautophagy and lysosomal function in quiescent and senescent cells, and the possibility for interventions that stimulate macroautophagy and lysosomes to promote quiescent cell function and tissue regeneration.

Life in lockdown: Orchestrating endoplasmic reticulum and lysosome homeostasis for quiescent cells.

Cellular quiescence-reversible exit from the cell cycle-is an important feature of many cell types important for organismal health. Quiescent cells activate protective mechanisms that allow their persistence in the absence of growth and division for long periods of time. Aging and cellular dysfunction compromise the survival and re-activation of quiescent cells over time. Counteracting this decline are two interconnected organelles that lie at opposite ends of the secretory pathway: the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes. In this review, we highlight recent studies exploring the roles of these two organelles in quiescent cells from diverse contexts and speculate on potential other roles they may play, such as through organelle contact sites. Finally, we discuss emerging models of cellular quiescence, utilizing new cell culture systems and model organisms, that are suited to the mechanistic investigation of the functions of these organelles in quiescent cells.

Launching a saliva-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance testing program on a university campus.

Regular surveillance testing of asymptomatic individuals for SARS-CoV-2 has been center to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak prevention on college and university campuses. Here we describe the voluntary saliva testing program instituted at the University of California, Berkeley during an early period of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020. The program was administered as a research study ahead of clinical implementation, enabling us to launch surveillance testing while continuing to optimize the assay. Results of both the testing protocol itself and the study participants' experience show how the program succeeded in providing routine, robust testing capable of contributing to outbreak prevention within a campus community and offer strategies for encouraging participation and a sense of civic responsibility.

Sterol transporters at membrane contact sites regulate TORC1 and TORC2 signaling.

Membrane contact sites (MCSs) function to facilitate the formation of membrane domains composed of specialized lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. In cells, membrane domains regulate membrane dynamics and biochemical and signaling pathways. We and others identified a highly conserved family of sterol transport proteins (Ltc/Lam) localized at diverse MCSs. In this study, we describe data indicating that the yeast family members Ltc1 and Ltc3/4 function at the vacuole and plasma membrane, respectively, to create membrane domains that partition upstream regulators of the TORC1 and TORC2 signaling pathways to coordinate cellular stress responses with sterol homeostasis.

The Emerging Network of Mitochondria-Organelle Contacts.

Membrane contact sites between mitochondria and other organelles are important for lipid and ion exchange, membrane dynamics, and signaling. Recent advances are revealing their molecular features and how different types of mitochondria contacts are coordinated with each other for cell function.

Ltc1 is an ER-localized sterol transporter and a component of ER-mitochondria and ER-vacuole contacts.

Organelle contact sites perform fundamental functions in cells, including lipid and ion homeostasis, membrane dynamics, and signaling. Using a forward proteomics approach in yeast, we identified new ER-mitochondria and ER-vacuole contacts specified by an uncharacterized protein, Ylr072w. Ylr072w is a conserved protein with GRAM and VASt domains that selectively transports sterols and is thus termed Ltc1, for Lipid transfer at contact site 1. Ltc1 localized to ER-mitochondria and ER-vacuole contacts via the mitochondrial import receptors Tom70/71 and the vacuolar protein Vac8, respectively. At mitochondria, Ltc1 was required for cell viability in the absence of Mdm34, a subunit of the ER-mitochondria encounter structure. At vacuoles, Ltc1 was required for sterol-enriched membrane domain formation in response to stress. Increasing the proportion of Ltc1 at vacuoles was sufficient to induce sterol-enriched vacuolar domains without stress. Thus, our data support a model in which Ltc1 is a sterol-dependent regulator of organelle and cellular homeostasis via its dual localization to ER-mitochondria and ER-vacuole contact sites.

Determinants and functions of mitochondrial behavior.

Mitochondria are ancient organelles evolved from bacteria. Over the course of evolution, the behavior of mitochondria inside eukaryotic cells has changed dramatically, and the corresponding machineries that control it are in most cases new inventions. The evolution of mitochondrial behavior reflects the necessity to create a dynamic compartment to integrate the myriad mitochondrial functions with the status of other endomembrane compartments, such as the endoplasmic reticulum, and with signaling pathways that monitor cellular homeostasis and respond to stress. Here we review what has been discovered about the molecular machineries that work together to control the collective behavior of mitochondria in cells, as well as their physiological roles in healthy and disease states.

ER-associated mitochondrial division links the distribution of mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA in yeast.

Mitochondrial division is important for mitochondrial distribution and function. Recent data have demonstrated that ER-mitochondria contacts mark mitochondrial division sites, but the molecular basis and functions of these contacts are not understood. Here we show that in yeast, the ER-mitochondria tethering complex, ERMES, and the highly conserved Miro GTPase, Gem1, are spatially and functionally linked to ER-associated mitochondrial division. Gem1 acts as a negative regulator of ER-mitochondria contacts, an activity required for the spatial resolution and distribution of newly generated mitochondrial tips following division. Previous data have demonstrated that ERMES localizes with a subset of actively replicating mitochondrial nucleoids. We show that mitochondrial division is spatially linked to nucleoids and that a majority of these nucleoids segregate prior to division, resulting in their distribution into newly generated tips in the mitochondrial network. Thus, we postulate that ER-associated division serves to link the distribution of mitochondria and mitochondrial nucleoids in cells. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00422.001.

Endoplasmic reticulum-associated mitochondria-cortex tether functions in the distribution and inheritance of mitochondria.

To elucidate the functional roles of mitochondrial dynamics in vivo, we identified genes that become essential in cells lacking the dynamin-related proteins Fzo1 and Dnm1, which are required for mitochondrial fusion and division, respectively. The screen identified Num1, a cortical protein implicated in mitochondrial division and distribution that also functions in nuclear migration. Our data indicate that Num1, together with Mdm36, forms a physical tether that robustly anchors mitochondria to the cell cortex but plays no direct role in mitochondrial division. Our analysis indicates that Num1-dependent anchoring is essential for distribution of the static mitochondrial network in fzo1 dnm1 cells. Consistently, expression of a synthetic mitochondria-cortex tether rescues the viability of fzo1 dnm1 num1 cells. We find that the cortical endoplasmic reticulum (ER) also is a constituent of the Num1 mitochondria-cortex tether, suggesting an active role for the ER in mitochondrial positioning in cells. Thus, taken together, our findings identify Num1 as a key component of a mitochondria-ER-cortex anchor, which we termed "MECA," that functions in parallel with mitochondrial dynamics to distribute and position the essential mitochondrial network.