Species-specific mitochondria dynamics and metabolism regulate the timing of neuronal development

Background

 

Background

 

The temporal cost of life events differs significantly between species, resulting in the inter-species variation we see in lifespan. As part of the life cycle, the timing of embryonic development also shows a species-specific pattern. Interestingly, developmental time positively correlates with the species-specific life-span, suggesting fundamental conservation in the mechanisms accounting for species-specific life span. Mammalian species show many similarities in the developmental process and yet divergence in developmental timing. For instance, the gestation time of a mouse embryo is around 1 month, while gestation in humans takes around 10 months.  Two recent studies suggest that in the cases of spinal cord development and somitogenesis, human embryos cost two-fold the time of that of the mouse^1,2. The two studies also showed that protein degradation provides a plausible cause for such time divergence.  It has largely been assumed that metabolic differences may play a role in this, but the upstream mechanisms that lead to protein degradation rate change have not yet been explored.

A recent preprint by Diaz-Cuadros et al.2021³ (also highlighted by prelight: https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/metabolic-regulation-of-species-specific-developmental-rates/), supported this idea by showing that overall metabolic rate scales with the developmental time between mouse and human, and that the partial inhibition of  electron transport chain activity –slows down developmental progression.

In this preprint, the authors provide further evidence for the metabolism-developmental timing hypothesis.

 

A recent preprint by Diaz-Caudros et al.2021³ (also highlighted by prelight: https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/metabolic-regulation-of-species-specific-developmental-rates/), supported this idea by showing that overall metabolic rate scales with the developmental time between mouse and human, and that the inhibition of oxidative propargylation – the pathway that produces the ATP most efficiently – inhibits the developmental progression.

 

In this preprint, the authors provide further evidence for the metabolism-developmental timing hypothesis.

 

 

 

Results

 

The authors used cortical neuron development as a model, as the timing of neuron maturation differs significantly between mouse and human (around 2-3 weeks in mouse and >12 months in human).  Previous xenotransplantation experiments showed that the species-specific timing of neuronal maturation is likely caused by cell-intrinsic factor(s). Mitochondrial dynamics have been shown to regulate the neurogenesis process⁴, but it was unknown whether it regulates the speed of neuronal maturation.

 

The authors first examined mitochondria morphology over the time-course of neuronal maturation in mouse embryos and pluripotent stem cells (PSC) differentiated human neuron progenitors. They found that the progression of mitochondria growth correlated with overall neuronal maturation time. This observation indicates that mitochondria metabolic activity may correspond to developmental timing. To examine this further,  the authors measured oxidative phosphorylation activity, one of the key metabolism processes happening within mitochondria,  by measuring the oxygen consumption rate (OCR). OCR gradually increases as mitochondria grow. More importantly, OCR was > 10 times higher in mouse than in human (Fig). This suggests that the rate of metabolic processes such as oxidative phosphorylation is faster in mouse than in human.

Fig. Oxygen consumption rate is significantly lower in human than in mouse during neuron development.

 

The authors performed glucose-tracer experiments to diagnose which glucose-related metabolic pathways/steps may show differential activities between mouse and human. Firstly, this showed that the level of mitochondrial lactate is significantly higher in human than that of the mouse.   The enrichment of lactate is caused by both the higher secretion rate of lactate and the higher lactate-conversion rate by glucose.  Secondly, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle rate was lower in human that in the mouse.

 

To test whether the observed differences of metabolic activities may account for species-specific timing for neuronal maturation, the authors inhibited lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), the enzyme that is responsible for pyruvate to lactate conversion. Strikingly, the authors found that the inhibition of LDH increased mitochondria activity and accelerated the maturation process of human neurons by several weeks.

 

Together, these results support that the difference in metabolic activity mediates the species-specific developmental timing.

 

Why did I choose this preprint?

 

This preprint is parallel with another recent preprint (Diaz-Cuadros et al., 2021) and supports the notion in the field that metabolic activity may regulate species-specific developmental timing. However, the two preprints used different systems, and reveal similarities and differences in the upstream metabolic regulation between mouse and human.

Both preprints show that the rate of multiple core metabolic pathways is slower in human than in mouse (TCA cycle, Oxidative phosphorylation). Thus, the slower metabolic rate in human is a general pattern, rather than the selective evolution of specific pathways.

However, different from the case in somitogenesis, where glucose and lactate ratio is similar, a higher lactate content has been found in cortical neuron development. This shows that tissue-specific traits in metabolic composition exist.

 

References

 

 

1. Matsuda M, Hayashi H, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Yoshioka-Kobayashi K, Kageyama R, Yamanaka Y, Ikeya M, Toguchida J, Alev C, Ebisuya M. Species-specific segmentation clock periods are due to differential biochemical reaction speeds. Science. 2020 Sep 18;369(6510):1450-1455. doi: 10.1126/science.aba7668. PMID: 32943519.

 

2. Rayon T, Stamataki D, Perez-Carrasco R, Garcia-Perez L, Barrington C, Melchionda M, Exelby K, Lazaro J, Tybulewicz VLJ, Fisher EMC, Briscoe J. Species-specific pace of development is associated with differences in protein stability. Science. 2020 Sep 18;369(6510):eaba7667. doi: 10.1126/science.aba7667. PMID: 32943498; PMCID: PMC7116327.

 

3. Metabolic regulation of species-specific developmental rates. Margarete Diaz-Cuadros, Teemu P. Miettinen, Dylan Sheedy, Carlos Manlio Díaz García, Svetlana Gapon, Alexis Hubaud, Gary Yellen, Scott R. Manalis, WilliamOldham, Olivier Pourquié bioRxiv 2021.08.27.457974; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.27.457974

 

4. Iwata R, Casimir P, Vanderhaeghen P. Mitochondrial dynamics in postmitotic cells regulate neurogenesis. Science. 2020 Aug 14;369(6505):858-862. doi: 10.1126/science.aba9760. PMID: 32792401.

 

Posted on: 1 February 2022

doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/prelights.31337

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