No abstract

USP30 is an integral protein of the outer mitochondrial membrane that counteracts PINK1 and Parkin‐dependent mitophagy following acute mitochondrial depolarisation. Here, we use two distinct mitophagy reporter systems to reveal tonic suppression by USP30, of a PINK1‐dependent component of basal mitophagy in cells lacking detectable Parkin. We propose that USP30 acts upstream of PINK1 through modulation of PINK1‐substrate availability and thereby determines the potential for mitophagy initiation. We further show that a fraction of endogenous USP30 is independently targeted to peroxisomes where it regulates basal pexophagy in a PINK1‐ and Parkin‐independent manner. Thus, we reveal a critical role of USP30 in the clearance of the two major sources of ROS in mammalian cells and in the regulation of both a PINK1‐dependent and a PINK1‐independent selective autophagy pathway.

Mitochondria play a pivotal role in the orchestration of cell death pathways. Here, we show that the control of ubiquitin dynamics at mitochondria contributes to the regulation of apoptotic cell death. The unique mitochondrial deubiquitylase, USP30, opposes Parkin-dependent ubiquitylation of TOM20, and its depletion enhances depolarization-induced cell death in Parkin-overexpressing cells. Importantly, USP30 also regulates BAX/BAK-dependent apoptosis, and its depletion sensitizes cancer cells to BH3-mimetics. These results provide the first evidence for a fundamental role of USP30 in determining the threshold for mitochondrial cell death and suggest USP30 as a potential target for combinatorial anti-cancer therapy.