Mammalian Sir2 homolog SIRT3 regulates global mitochondrial lysine acetylation

David B. Lombard, Frederick W. Alt, Hwei Ling Cheng, Jakob Bunkenborg, Ryan S. Streeper, Raul Mostoslavsky, Jennifer Kim, George Yancopoulos, David Valenzuela, Andrew Murphy, Yinhua Yang, Yaohui Chen, Matthew D. Hirschey, Roderick T. Bronson, Marcia Haigis, Leonard P. Guarente, Robert V. Farese, Sherman Weissman, Eric Verdin, Bjoern Schwer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1060 Scopus citations

Abstract

Homologs of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sir2 protein, sirtuins, promote longevity in many organisms. Studies of the sirtuin SIRT3 have so far been limited to cell culture systems. Here, we investigate the localization and function of SIRT3 in vivo. We show that endogenous mouse SIRT3 is a soluble mitochondrial protein. To address the function and relevance of SIRT3 in the regulation of energy metabolism, we generated and phenotypically characterized SIRT3 knockout mice. SIRT3-deficient animals exhibit striking mitochondrial protein hyperacetylation, suggesting that SIRT3 is a major mitochondrial deacetylase. In contrast, no mitochondrial hyperacetylation was detectable in mice lacking the two other mitochondrial sirtuins, SIRT4 and SIRT5. Surprisingly, despite this biochemical phenotype, SIRT3-deficient mice are metabolically unremarkable under basal conditions and show normal adaptive thermogenesis, a process previously suggested to involve SIRT3. Overall, our results extend the recent finding of lysine acetylation of mitochondrial proteins and demonstrate that SIRT3 has evolved to control reversible lysine acetylation in this organelle.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8807-8814
Number of pages8
JournalMolecular and Cellular Biology
Volume27
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2007
Externally publishedYes

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