*Authors contributed equally.Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can act as damaging molecules but also represent central hubs in cellular signalling networks. Increasing evidence indicates that ROS play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, although the underlying mechanisms and consequences of pathophysiologically elevated ROS in the cardiovascular system are still not completely resolved. More recently, alterations of the epigenetic landscape, which can affect DNA methylation, post-translational histone modifications, ATP-dependent alterations to chromatin and non-coding RNA transcripts, have been considered to be of increasing importance in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. While it has long been accepted that epigenetic changes are imprinted during development or even inherited and are not changed after reaching the lineage-specific expression profile, it becomes more and more clear that epigenetic modifications are highly dynamic. Thus, they might provide an important link between the actions of ROS and cardiovascular diseases. This review will provide an overview of the role of ROS in modulating the epigenetic landscape in the context of the cardiovascular system. This article is part of a themed section on Redox Biology and Oxidative Stress in Health and Disease. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v174.12/issuetoc Abbreviations 5hmC, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine; 5mC, 5-methylcytosine; 8-oxodG, 8-oxo-2 0 -deoxyguanosine; BAF, Brg1-associated factors; BER, base excision repair; BRG1, Brahma-related gene 1; BRM, Brahma; CBP, CREB binding protein; CHD, chromodomain helicase DNA-binding; CK2, casein kinase 2; CpG, 5-C-phosphate-G-3 0 ; Cys, cysteine; DNMT, DNA methyltransferase; DPF3a, double plant homeodomain (PHD) finger protein 3a; E2F1, E2F transcription factor 1; ETC, electron transport chain; EZH2, enhancer of zeste 2 PRC2 subunit; GCN5, general control nonderepressible 5; GPX1, glutathione peroxidase; HAT, histone acetyltransferases; HDAC, histone deacetylase; HDM, histone demethylase; HIF1, hypoxia-inducible factor 1; HMT, histone methyltransferases; ISWI, imitation switch; KDM, histone demethylase; LINE-1, long interspersed nuclear element-1; lncRNA, long non-coding RNA; LSD1, lysine demethylase 1A; miRNA, microRNA; mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA; nDNA, nuclear DNA; NOX, NADPH oxidases; OGG1, 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase; OXPHOS, oxidative phosphorylation; PARP, poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase; PGC-1α, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha; PHD, prolyl hydroxylase; PolG, polymerase γ; PPARγ, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma; PRC, polycomb repressive complex; PRMT, protein arginine N-methyltransferase; ROS, reactive oxygen species; SAM, S-adenosyl methionine; SET, Su(var)3-9, Enhancer of Zeste, Trithorax; SIRT, sirtuin; SMYD1, SET and MYND domain-containing protein 1; SNF2H, sucrose nonfermentable 2 hom...

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The Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome encodes two sequence related acetyl-CoA carboxylases, the cytosolic Acc1p and the mitochondrial Hfa1p, required for respiratory function. Several aspects of expression of the HFA1 gene and its evolutionary origin have remained unclear. Here, we determined the HFA1 transcription initiation sites by 5′ RACE analysis. Using a novel “Stop codon scanning” approach, we mapped the location of the HFA1 translation initiation site to an upstream AUU codon at position −372 relative to the annotated start codon. This upstream initiation leads to production of a mitochondrial targeting sequence preceding the ACC domains of the protein. In silico analyses of fungal ACC genes revealed conserved “cryptic” upstream mitochondrial targeting sequences in yeast species that have not undergone a whole genome duplication. Our Δhfa1 baker's yeast mutant phenotype rescue studies using the protoploid Kluyveromyces lactis ACC confirmed functionality of the cryptic upstream mitochondrial targeting signal. These results lend strong experimental support to the hypothesis that the mitochondrial and cytosolic acetyl-CoA carboxylases in S. cerevisiae have evolved from a single gene encoding both the mitochondrial and cytosolic isoforms. Leaning on a cursory survey of a group of genes of our interest, we propose that cryptic 5′ upstream mitochondrial targeting sequences may be more abundant in eukaryotes than anticipated thus far.

Mitochondria are the main consumers of molecular O2 in a cell as well as an abundant source of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Both, molecular oxygen and ROS are powerful regulators of the hypoxia-inducible factor-1α-subunit (HIF-α). While a number of mechanisms in the oxygen-dependent HIF-α regulation are quite well known, the view with respect to mitochondria is less clear. Several approaches using pharmacological or genetic tools targeting the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) indicated that ROS, mainly formed at the Rieske cluster of complex III of the ETC, are drivers of HIF-1α activation. However, studies investigating non-ETC located mitochondrial defects and their effects on HIF-1α regulation are scarce, if at all existing. Thus, in the present study we examined three cell lines with non-ETC mitochondrial defects and focused on HIF-1α degradation and transcription, target gene expression, as well as ROS levels. We found that cells lacking the key enzyme 2-enoyl thioester reductase/mitochondrial enoyl-CoA reductase (MECR), and cells lacking manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) showed a reduced induction of HIF-1α under long-term (20 h) hypoxia. By contrast, cells lacking the mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome channel protein Mpv17 displayed enhanced levels of HIF-1α already under normoxic conditions. Further, we show that ROS do not exert a uniform pattern when mediating their effects on HIF-1α, although all mitochondrial defects in the used cell types increased ROS formation. Moreover, all defects caused a different HIF-1α regulation via promoting HIF-1α degradation as well as via changes in HIF-1α transcription. Thereby, MECR- and MnSOD-deficient cells showed a reduction in HIF-1α mRNA levels whereas the Mpv17 lacking cells displayed enhanced HIF-1α mRNA levels under normoxia and hypoxia. Altogether, our study shows for the first time that mitochondrial defects which are not related to the ETC and Krebs cycle contribute differently to HIF-1α regulation by affecting HIF-1α degradation and HIF-1α transcription where ROS play not a major role.

Mammalian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a high-copy maternally inherited genome essential for aerobic energy metabolism. Mutations in mtDNA can lead to heteroplasmy, the co-occurence of two different mtDNA variants in the same cell, which can segregate in a tissue-specific manner affecting the onset and severity of mitochondrial dysfunction. To investigate mechanisms regulating mtDNA segregation we use a heteroplasmic mouse model with two polymorphic neutral mtDNA haplotypes (NZB and BALB) that displays tissue-specific and age-dependent selection for mtDNA haplotypes. In the hematopoietic compartment there is selection for the BALB mtDNA haplotype, a phenotype that can be modified by allelic variants of Gimap3. Gimap3 is a tail-anchored member of the GTPase of the immunity-associated protein (Gimap) family of protein scaffolds important for leukocyte development and survival. Here we show how the expression of two murine Gimap3 alleles from Mus musculus domesticus and M. m. castaneus differentially affect mtDNA segregation. The castaneus allele has incorporated a uORF (upstream open reading frame) in-frame with the Gimap3 mRNA that impairs translation and imparts a negative effect on the steady-state protein abundance. We found that quantitative changes in the expression of Gimap3 and the paralogue Gimap5, which encodes a lysosomal protein, affect mtDNA segregation in the mouse hematopoietic tissues. We also show that Gimap3 localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum and not mitochondria as previously reported. Collectively these data show that the abundance of protein scaffolds on the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes are important to the segregation of the mitochondrial genome in the mouse hematopoietic compartment. KEYWORDS mitochondria; mitochondrial DNA; mice; segregation; Gimap M AMMALIAN mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a maternally inherited small circular multicopy genome that encodes 13 proteins that are essential subunits of four of the five complexes required for mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Germline or somatic-cell mtDNA mutations lead to the co-occurrence of two or more sequence variants in a cell, a state known as heteroplasmy. In the absence of selection, the segregation of mtDNA sequence variants is neutral and can be modeled as a random walk (Chinnery and Samuels 1999); however, in some cases there is preferential selection for a mtDNA sequence variant that is dependent upon the nucleotide sequence, tissue, and nuclear background (Battersby and Shoubridge 2001;Battersby et al. 2003Battersby et al. , 2005Jokinen and Battersby 2013;Burgstaller et al. 2014). The majority of pathogenic mtDNA mutations are heteroplasmic and some mutations display skewed segregation patterns in somatic tissues. (Larsson et al. 1990;Boulet et al. 1992;Kawakami et al. 1994;Dunbar et al. 1995;Fu et al. 1996;Chinnery et al. 1997Weber et al. 1997), which can affect the onset and severity of mitochondrial dysfunction. Currently, the molecular basis for this regulation of the mitochondrial genome is largely un...