Recruitment of mitofusin 2 into "lipid rafts" drives mitochondria fusion induced by Mdivi-1.

// Laura Ciarlo 1, * , Rosa Vona 1, * , Valeria Manganelli 2, * , Lucrezia Gambardella 1 , Carla Raggi 3 , Matteo Marconi 1 , Walter Malorni 1 , Maurizio Sorice 2 , Tina Garofalo 2, # and Paola Matarrese 1, 4, # 1 Oncology Unit, Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy 2 Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy 3 Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy 4 Center of Metabolomics, Rome, Italy * These authors contributed equally to this work # These authors to be considered as Senior Authors Correspondence to: Paola Matarrese, email: paola.matarrese@iss.it Keywords: lipid rafts; mitochondria; fusion; apoptosis; reactive oxygen species Received: July 22, 2017      Accepted: February 27, 2018      Published: April 10, 2018 ABSTRACT The regulation of the mitochondrial dynamics and the balance between fusion and fission processes are crucial for the health and fate of the cell. Mitochondrial fusion and fission machinery is controlled by key proteins such as mitofusins, OPA-1 and several further molecules. In the present work we investigated the implication of lipid rafts in mitochondrial fusion induced by Mdivi-1. Our results underscore the possible implication of lipid “rafts” in mitochondrial morphogenetic changes and their homeostasis.