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mitophagy

traitmech:000639 · CLASS · PROPOSED

An autophagy phenotype in which a microbial cell selectively degrades its mitochondria by delivering them to lysosomal or vacuolar compartments.

Trait evidence (4)

  • DOI:10.7554/eLife.61245
    Thus, we hereafter refer to the selective autophagic degradation of mitochondria in fission yeast as mitophagy.

    PMID:33138913, PMC7609059. Full-text Results section s2-2, not the scientific Abstract, directly read in Europe PMC XML at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC7609059/fullTextXML. Results s2-1/s2-2, Methods s4-1/s4-5/s4-8 and actual Figure 1 plus its figure supplement 1 were inspected. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, mitochondrial reporter processing has Atg1 and vacuolar-protease Isp6 controls; Atg43 perturbation and complementation distinguish mitochondrial turnover from bulk, cytoplasmic and ER turnover. atg43-1 is a partial allele, not the complete deletion, which also impairs vegetative growth. Tom70 deletion retains weak processing on long exposure. Other actual figures, complete Methods, Key Resources Table and natural strain provenance were not inspected.

  • DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2009.06.014
    This gene is not required for other types of selective autophagy or for nonspecific macroautophagy.

    PMID:19619495, PMC2746076. Scientific Abstract directly read in Europe PMC core metadata with matching DOI. The quoted gene is YIL146C/ECM37, named ATG32 by the authors after a mitophagy-deficient mutant screen. This supports selectivity relative to other autophagy phenotypes in the studied yeast, not a universal ATG32 requirement or a gene-presence trait. Mitochondrial recruitment or vacuolar import alone does not establish completed degradation. Full-text retrieval failed; methods, actual figures and strain provenance were not inspected. Human-disease background is not microbial evidence.

  • DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2009.06.013
    We propose that Atg32 acts as a mitophagy-specific receptor and regulates selective degradation of mitochondria.

    PMID:19619494. Scientific Abstract directly read in Europe PMC core metadata and PubMed HTML. In post-log respiratory yeast cells, the authors report selective mitochondrial transport to the vacuole and propose an Atg32 receptor mechanism. The quote retains that proposal language. It does not establish that every microbial route uses Atg32, that all cargo must be damaged, or that starvation is always required. Full text, actual figures and natural strain provenance were not inspected.

  • DOI:10.4161/auto.4034
    The observation of mitochondria degradation showed that both a selective process and a nonselective process of mitochondria autophagy occurred successively.

    PMID:17377488. Scientific Abstract directly read in Europe PMC core metadata with matching DOI. The yeast study reports preferential microautophagy under its nonfermentable growth and nitrogen-starvation conditions, and sequential selective and nonselective turnover. Only selective degradation belongs to this proposed trait; incidental capture during bulk autophagy is insufficient. This supports route-sensitive interpretation, not universal microautophagy or a universal UTH1 requirement. Full text, actual electron micrographs and strain provenance were not inspected.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.7554/eLife.61245

Parent traits (1)

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (2)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Review selective-turnover scope against route-specific terminology.

CURATION TODO OPEN mitophagy-selectivity-and-route-scope · raised by codex · 2026-10-06

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

Use autophagy traitmech:000638 as the direct broader phenotype. This draft uses selective mitochondrial degradation, as named in the fission-yeast Results, without making membrane route universal. The 2007 yeast abstract reports selective and nonselective turnover with preferential microautophagy under its conditions. In contrast, issuing GO:0000423 names mitophagy specifically for selective macroautophagy and lists macromitophagy as exact; GO:0000424 micromitophagy is not its child. GO:0000422 autophagy of mitochondrion is broader and lists mitophagy as narrow. These nonobsolete biological-process records were directly resolved at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/QuickGO/services/ontology/go/terms/GO%3A0000422,GO%3A0000423,GO%3A0000424. Do not silently impose GO's route-specific usage on every microbial source, or assert an exact phenotype xref. Retain this interpretation for human review; omit exact synonyms including broad mitochondrial autophagy and route-specific macromitophagy. Protein/gene presence, puncta, organelle fragmentation, membrane depolarization, delivery without degradation, and nonspecific bulk capture alone are insufficient. The trait belongs to the microbial cell doing the turnover, not to a bacterium inducing mitophagy in an animal host.

Resolve strain provenance and taxon-paired mechanisms before expansion.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN mitophagy-exemplars-and-native-mechanisms · raised by codex · 2026-10-06

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

The evidence uses reporter and perturbation strains; natural strain provenance is not independently established. Keep canonical examples unset rather than presenting deficient mutants as positive exemplars. Atg43 in fission yeast and Atg32 in budding yeast do not define a universal receptor inventory. Atg43 also has mitophagy-independent functions, so growth effects alone do not measure mitophagy. Require native taxon-paired protein accession checks and direct functional evidence before a causal graph. Do not encode mitochondrial genes or a detector profile as the phenotype, or require every degraded mitochondrion to be damaged.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added mitophagy as selective mitochondrial degradation under autophagy, with four DOI-backed snippets and explicit source, route and flux limits. Ignored-and-hidden searches and pinned METPO review found no exact record. Reserved METPO:1059200 in v515, carrying v514's unchanged parent row as context. Deferred unverified examples, exact mappings and protein graphs.