PolyQ-Expansion Causes Mitochondria Fragmentation Independent of Huntingtin and Is Distinct from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)/Mechanical Stress-Mediated Fragmentation Which Results from Cell Death

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been reported in many Huntington’s disease (HD) models; however, it is unclear how these defects occur. Here, we test the hypothesis that excess pathogenic huntingtin (HTT) impairs mitochondrial homeostasis, using Drosophila genetics and pharmacological inhibitors in HD and polyQ-expansion disease models and in a mechanical stress-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) model. Expression of pathogenic HTT caused fragmented mitochondria compared to normal HTT, but HTT did not co-localize with mitochondria under normal or pathogenic conditions. Expression of pathogenic polyQ (127Q) alone or in the context of Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) caused fragmented mitochondria. While mitochondrial fragmentation was not dependent on the cellular location of polyQ accumulations, the expression of a chaperone protein, excess of mitofusin (MFN), or depletion of dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1) rescued fragmentation. Intriguingly, a higher concentration of nitric oxide (NO) was observed in polyQ-expressing larval brains and inhibiting NO production rescued polyQ-mediated fragmented mitochondria, postulating that DRP1 nitrosylation could contribute to excess fission. Furthermore, while excess PI3K, which suppresses polyQ-induced cell death, did not rescue polyQ-mediated fragmentation, it did rescue fragmentation caused by mechanical stress/TBI. Together, our observations suggest that pathogenic polyQ alone is sufficient to cause DRP1-dependent mitochondrial fragmentation upstream of cell death, uncovering distinct physiological mechanisms for mitochondrial dysfunction in polyQ disease and mechanical stress.