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AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a master regulator of cellular energy homeostasis that also plays a role in preserving mitochondrial function and integrity. Upon a disturbance in the cellular energy state that increases AMP levels, AMPK activity promotes a switch from anabolic to catabolic metabolism to restore energy homeostasis. However, the level of severity of mitochondrial dysfunction required to trigger AMPK activation is currently unclear, as is whether stimulation of AMPK using specific agonists can improve the cellular phenotype following mitochondrial dysfunction. Using a cellular model of mitochondrial disease characterized by progressive mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion and deteriorating mitochondrial metabolism, we show that mitochondria-associated AMPK becomes activated early in the course of the advancing mitochondrial dysfunction, before any quantifiable decrease in the ATP/(AMP + ADP) ratio or respiratory chain activity. Moreover, stimulation of AMPK activity using the specific small-molecule agonist A-769662 alleviated the mitochondrial phenotypes caused by the mtDNA depletion and restored normal mitochondrial membrane potential. Notably, the agonist treatment was able to partially restore mtDNA levels in cells with severe mtDNA depletion, while it had no impact on mtDNA levels of control cells. The beneficial impact of the agonist on mitochondrial membrane potential was also observed in cells from patients suffering from mtDNA depletion. These findings improve our understanding of the effects of specific small-molecule activators of AMPK on mitochondrial and cellular function and suggest a potential application for these compounds in disease states involving mtDNA depletion.

The incorporation of ribonucleotides (rNMPs) into the nuclear genome leads to severe genomic instability, including strand breaks and short 2-5 bp deletions at repetitive sequences. Curiously, the detrimental effects of rNMPs are not observed for the human mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) that typically contains several rNMPs per molecule. Given that the nuclear genome instability phenotype is dependent on the activity of the nuclear topoisomerase 1 enzyme (hTOP1), and mammalian mitochondria contain a dis]nct topoisomerase 1 paralog (hTOP1MT), we hypothesized that the differential effects of rNMPs on the two genomes may reflect divergent properties of the two cellular topoisomerase 1 enzymes. Here, we characterized the endoribonuclease activity of hTOP1MT and found it to be less efficient than that of its nuclear counterpart, a finding that was partly explained by its weaker affinity for its DNA substrate. Moreover, while hTOP1 and yeast TOP1 were able to cleave at an rNMP located even outside of the consensus cleavage site, hTOP1MT showed no such preference for rNMPs. As a consequence, hTOP1MT was inefficient at producing the short rNMP-dependent dele]ons that are characteristic of TOP1-driven genome instability. These findings help explain the tolerance of rNMPs in the mitochondrial genome

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) stability, essential for cellular energy production, relies on DNA polymerase gamma (POLγ). Here, we show that the POLγ Y951N disease-causing mutation induces replication stalling and severe mtDNA depletion. However, unlike other POLγ disease-causing mutations, Y951N does not directly impair exonuclease activity and only mildly affects polymerase activity. Instead, we found that Y951N compromises the enzyme’s ability to efficiently toggle between DNA synthesis and degradation, and is thus a patient-derived mutation with impaired polymerase-exonuclease switching. These findings provide insights into the intramolecular switch when POLγ proofreads the newly synthesized DNA strand and reveal a new mechanism for causing mitochondrial DNA instability.

Faithful mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication is critical for the proper function of the oxidative phosphorylation system. Problems with mtDNA maintenance, such as replication stalling upon encountering DNA damage, impair this vital function and can potentially lead to disease. An in vitro reconstituted mtDNA replication system can be used to investigate how the mtDNA replisome deals with, for example, oxidatively or UV-damaged DNA. In this chapter, we provide a detailed protocol on how to study the bypass of different types of DNA damage using a rolling circle replication assay. The assay takes advantage of purified recombinant proteins and can be adapted to the examination of various aspects of mtDNA maintenance.

Eukaryotic cells have their own energy-producing organelles called mitochondria. The energy is stored in the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecule and is produced via the oxidative phosphorylation process inside the mitochondria. Thirteen of the essential proteins required for this process are encoded on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). To ensure sufficient energy production it is therefore important to maintain mtDNA integrity. MtDNA maintenance is dependent on several factors, which include the replicative DNA polymerase. In humans, the main mitochondrial polymerase is DNA polymerase gamma (Pol γ), whereas in S. cerevisiae the homolog is called Mip1. Defects in the mitochondrial DNA polymerase and mtDNA replication in general cause mitochondrial dysfunction, reduced energy production and, in humans, mitochondrial diseases. 

DNA damage and non-standard nucleotides are frequently forming obstacles to the DNA replication machinery. One of the proteins that assists the nuclear replication machinery in dealing with DNA damage is the primase-polymerase PrimPol, performing either translesion DNA synthesis or alternatively priming replication restart after DNA damage. More recently, PrimPol was also identified inside the mitochondria. We therefore investigated the potential role of PrimPol to assist the mtDNA replication machinery at the site of mtDNA damage. Our results suggest that PrimPol does not work as a conventional translesion DNA polymerase at oxidative damage in the mitochondria, but instead interacts with the mtDNA replication machinery to support restart after replication stalling.

Stalling of DNA replication can also occur at wrongly inserted nucleotides. In this study, we pay extra attention to ribonucleotides, which are non-standard nucleotides in the context of DNA. Ribonucleotides (rNTPs) are normally building blocks for RNA but are occasionally utilized by DNA polymerases during DNA replication. Ribonucleotides are more reactive compared to dNTPs as they have an additional hydroxyl group (-OH). Their presence in the genome can lead to replication stress and genomic instability. In nuclear DNA, ribonucleotides are efficiently removed by the Ribonucleotide Excision Repair (RER) pathway and failure to remove them leads to human disease (e.g., Aicardi-Goutières syndrome). We investigated if ribonucleotides are removed from mtDNA and if not, how the replication machinery can tolerate the presence of ribonucleotides in the mtDNA.  

By using several yeast strains with altered dNTP pools, we found that the RER pathway is not active in mitochondria. Instead, mitochondria have an innate tolerance to ribonucleotide incorporation in mtDNA and under normal cellular conditions mature human mtDNA contains ~50 ribonucleotides per genome. We show that this ribonucleotide tolerance is the result of human Pol γ’s remarkable abilities to 1) efficiently bypass ribonucleotides in the DNA template and 2) proficiently discriminate against the incorporation of free ribonucleotides during mtDNA replication. Pol γ’s discrimination capability against free ribonucleotides comes with a price. In the presence of high rNTP levels, Pol γ is inhibited in DNA synthesis and could eventually lead to frequent replication stalling. Together, these studies are in line with our hypothesis that ribonucleotides in mtDNA can be tolerated, with the consequence that mtDNA replication is in particular vulnerable to imbalances in rNTP/dNTP ratios.

In summary, this study shows that we cannot simply extrapolate our knowledge of nuclear DNA replication stress management to the mtDNA maintenance, highlighting the need to study the molecular mechanism by which the mtDNA replication machinery is able to cope with DNA lesions to prevent loss of mtDNA integrity and disease development. 

Mammalian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication and repair have been studied intensively for the last 50 years. Although recently advances in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of mtDNA maintenance and the proteins involved in these have been made, there are disturbing gaps between the existing theoretical models and experimental observations. Conflicting data and hypotheses exist about the role of RNA and ribonucleotides in mtDNA replication, but also about the priming of replication and the formation of pathological rearrangements. In the presented review, we have attempted to match these loose ends and draft consensus where it can be found, while identifying outstanding issues for future research.

Ribonucleotides (rNMPs) are frequently incorporated during replication or repair by DNA polymerases and failure to remove them leads to instability of nuclear DNA (nDNA). Conversely, rNMPs appear to be relatively well-tolerated in mitochondnal DNA (mtDNA), although the mechanisms behind the tolerance remain unclear. We here show that the human mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (Pol gamma) bypasses single rNMPs with an unprecedentedly high fidelity and efficiency. In addition, Pol gamma exhibits a strikingly low frequency of rNMP incorporation, a property, which we find is independent of its exonuclease activity. However, the physiological levels of free rNTPs partially inhibit DNA synthesis by Pol gamma and render the polymerase more sensitive to imbalanced dNTP pools. The characteristics of Pol gamma reported here could have implications for forms of rntDNA depletion syndrome (MDS) that are associated with imbalanced cellular dNTP pools. Our results show that at the rNTPidNIP ratios that are expected to prevail in such disease states, Pol gamma enters a polymerasetexonuclease idling mode that leads to mtDNA replication stalling. This could ultimately lead to mtDNA depletion and, consequently, to mitochondrial disease phenotypes such as those observed in MDS.

Eukaryotic PrimPol is a recently discovered DNA-dependent DNA primase and translesion synthesis DNA polymerase found in the nucleus and mitochondria. Although PrimPol has been shown to be required for repriming of stalled replication forks in the nucleus, its role in mitochondria has remained unresolved. Here we demonstrate in vivo and in vitro that PrimPol can reinitiate stalled mtDNA replication and can prime mtDNA replication from nonconventional origins. Our results not only help in the understanding of how mitochondria cope with replicative stress but can also explain some controversial features of the lagging-strand replication.

Incorporation of ribonucleotides into DNA during genome replication is a significant source of genomic instability. The frequency of ribonucleotides in DNA is determined by deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate/ribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP/rNTP) ratios, by the ability of DNA polymerases to discriminate against ribonucleotides, and by the capacity of repair mechanisms to remove incorporated ribonucleotides. To simultaneously compare how the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes incorporate and remove ribonucleotides, we challenged these processes by changing the balance of cellular dNTPs. Using a collection of yeast strains with altered dNTP pools, we discovered an inverse relationship between the concentration of individual dNTPs and the amount of the corresponding ribonucleotides incorporated in mitochondrial DNA, while in nuclear DNA the ribonucleotide pattern was only altered in the absence of ribonucleotide excision repair. Our analysis uncovers major differences in ribonucleotide repair between the two genomes and provides concrete evidence that yeast mitochondria lack mechanisms for removal of ribonucleotides incorporated by the mtDNA polymerase. Furthermore, as cytosolic dNTP pool imbalances were transmitted equally well into the nucleus and the mitochondria, our results support a view of the cytosolic and mitochondrial dNTP pools in frequent exchange.

Oxidative stress is capable of causing damage to various cellular constituents, including DNA. There is however limited knowledge on how oxidative stress influences mitochondrial DNA and its replication. Here, we have used purified mtDNA replication proteins, i.e. DNA polymerase. holoenzyme, the mitochondrial single-stranded DNA binding protein mtSSB, the replicative helicase Twinkle and the proposed mitochondrial translesion synthesis polymerase PrimPol to study lesion bypass synthesis on oxidative damage-containing DNA templates. Our studies were carried out at dNTP levels representative of those prevailing either in cycling or in non-dividing cells. At dNTP concentrations that mimic those in cycling cells, the replication machinery showed substantial stalling at sites of damage, and these problems were further exacerbated at the lower dNTP concentrations present in resting cells. PrimPol, the translesion synthesis polymerase identified inside mammalian mitochondria, did not promote mtDNA replication fork bypass of the damage. This argues against a conventional role for PrimPol as a mitochondrial translesion synthesis DNA polymerase for oxidative DNA damage; however, we show that Twinkle, the mtDNA replicative helicase, is able to stimulate PrimPol DNA synthesis in vitro, suggestive of an as yet unidentified role of PrimPol in mtDNA metabolism.