α-Synuclein Expression Causes Mitochondria Fragmentation and Increased Sensitivity to Oxidative Stress in the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that is based on mitochondrial dysfunction. One of the factors in the development of Parkinson’s disease is aggregation of the α-synuclein protein, which makes it a strong biomarker of the disease. α-Synuclein itself is a neuronal protein involved in dopamine transport, but its overexpression or mutations negatively affect cellular homeostasis. Since the disease is complex, identifying the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in its pathogenesis is an important task, and many different models are being developed to study the intracellular features of the disease. The use of yeast seems to be a promising strategy for studying pathologies of this kind. The effect of α-synuclein expression in Yarrowia lipolytica yeast on the mitochondrial morphology and sensitivity to oxidative stress induced by a prooxidant is considered. It is shown that α-synuclein expression leads to the fragmentation of yeast mitochondria and reduces the tolerance of yeast cells to induced oxidative stress.