Mitophagy (mitochondrial autophagy), which removes damaged, effete and superfluous mitochondria, has several distinct variants. In Type 1 mitophagy occurring during nutrient deprivation, preautophagic structures (PAS) grow into cup-shaped phagophores that surround and sequester individual mitochondria into mitophagosomes, a process requiring phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and often occurring in coordination with mitochondrial fission. After sequestration, the outer compartment of the mitophagosome acidifies, followed by mitochondrial depolarization and ultimately hydrolytic digestion in lysosomes. Mitochondrial damage stimulates Type 2 mitophagy. After photodamage to single mitochondria, depolarization occurs followed by decoration and then coalescence of autophagic LC3-containing structures on mitochondrial surfaces. Vesicular acidification then occurs. By contrast to Type 1 mitophagy, PI3K inhibition does not block Type 2 mitophagy. Further, Type 2 mitophagy is not associated with phagophore formation or mitochondrial fission. A third form of self-eating of mitochondria is formation of mitochondria-derived vesicles (MDVs) enriched in oxidized mitochondrial proteins that bud off and transit into multivesicular bodies. Topologically, the internalization of MDV by invagination of the surface of multivesicular bodies followed by vesicle scission into the lumen is a form of microautophagy, or micromitophagy (Type 3 mitophagy). Cell biological distinctions are the basis for these three types of mitophagy. Future studies are needed to better characterize the molecular and biochemical differences between Types 1, 2 and 3 mitophagy.

Respiratory substrates and adenine nucleotides cross the mitochondrial outer membrane through the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC), comprising three isoforms — VDAC1, 2, and 3. We characterized the role of individual isoforms in mitochondrial metabolism by HepG2 human hepatoma cells using siRNA. With VDAC3 to the greatest extent, all VDAC isoforms contributed to the maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential, but only VDAC3 knockdown decreased ATP, ADP, NAD(P)H, and mitochondrial redox state. Cells expressing predominantly VDAC3 were least sensitive to depolarization induced by increased free tubulin. In planar lipid bilayers, free tubulin inhibited VDAC1 and VDAC2 but not VDAC3. Erastin, a compound that interacts with VDAC, blocked and reversed mitochondrial depolarization after microtubule destabilizers in intact cells and antagonized tubulin-induced VDAC blockage in planar bilayers. In conclusion, free tubulin inhibits VDAC1/2 and limits mitochondrial metabolism in HepG2 cells, contributing to the Warburg phenomenon. Reversal of tubulin-VDAC interaction by erastin antagonizes Warburg metabolism and restores oxidative mitochondrial metabolism.

Formation of the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ) depends on flux of respiratory substrates, ATP, ADP, and Pi through voltage-dependent anion channels (VDAC). As tubulin promotes single-channel closure of VDAC, we hypothesized that tubulin is a dynamic regulator of ΔΨ, which in cultured cancer cells was assessed by confocal microscopy of the potential-indicating fluorophore tetramethylrhodamine methylester (TMRM). Microtubule destabilizers, rotenone, colchicine, and nocodazole, and the microtubule stabilizer paclitaxel increased and decreased cellular free tubulin, respectively, and in parallel decreased and increased ΔΨ. Protein kinase A (PKA) activation by cAMP analogues and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) inhibition decreased ΔΨ, whereas PKA inhibition hyperpolarized, consistent with reports that PKA and GSK-3β decrease and increase VDAC conductance, respectively. Plasma membrane potential assessed by DiBAC₄(3) was not altered by any of the treatments. We propose that inhibition of VDAC by free tubulin limits mitochondrial metabolism in cancer cells. Cancer Res; 70(24); 10192–201. ©2010 AACR.