LONP1-mediated mitochondrial quality control safeguards metabolic shifts in heart development

The mitochondrial matrix AAA+ Lon protease (LONP1) degrades misfolded or unassembled proteins, which play a pivotal role in mitochondrial quality control. During heart development, a metabolic shift from anaerobic glycolysis to mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation takes place, which relies strongly on functional mitochondria. However, the relationship between the mitochondrial quality control machinery and metabolic shifts is elusive. Here, we interfered with mitochondrial quality control by inactivating Lonp1 in murine embryonic cardiac tissue, resulting in severely impaired heart development, leading to embryonic lethality. Mitochondrial swelling, cristae loss and abnormal protein aggregates were evident in the mitochondria of Lonp1-deficient cardiomyocytes. Accordingly, the p-eIF2α-ATF4 pathway was triggered, and nuclear translocation of ATF4 was observed. We further demonstrated that ATF4 regulates the expression of Tfam negatively while promoting that of Glut1, which was responsible for the disruption of the metabolic shift to oxidative phosphorylation. In addition, elevated levels of reactive oxygen species were observed in Lonp1-deficient cardiomyocytes. This study revealed that LONP1 safeguards metabolic shifts in the developing heart by controlling mitochondrial protein quality, suggesting that disrupted mitochondrial quality control may cause prenatal cardiomyopathy.