Selective Degradation of Mitochondria by Mitophagy in Pathogenic Fungi

Selective mitochondrial autophagy or mitophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular process that selectively degrades superfluous, damaged, and dysfunctional mitochondria. This process is believed to be a mitochondrial quality control system crucial for intracellular homeostasis. Recently, researchers developed a range of methods to induce mitophagy and a variety of assays to monitor this process. With these new methods, the research on mitophagy has been developed rapidly. In particular, some key receptors and regulatory factors in fungi have been identified, which provides a basis for further understanding of the mechanism of this process. Although it has been studied extensively in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mitophagy in pathogenic fungi remains poorly understood. However recent studies have shown that mitophagy is involved in the regulation of pathogenicity of pathogenic fungi, which greatly increases the importance of mitophagy. Therefore, it is necessary to review the current research on mitophagy in order to provide an accurate understanding of mitophagy and promote mitophagy research in the pathogenic fungi.