ROS production by adrenodoxin does not cause apoptosis in fission yeast.

We previously showed that production of reactive oxygen species caused by overexpression of the mitochondrial electron transfer protein adrenodoxin (Adx) induces apoptosis in mammalian cells. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, are also produced in cells that undergo an apoptotic-like cell death, but it is not yet clear whether they are actually causative for this phenomenon or whether they are merely produced as a by-product. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to trigger mitochondrial duanyu1670 production in fission yeast by overexpression of either wildtype Adx (Adx-WT) or of several activated Adx mutants and to investigate its consequences. It was found that strong expression of either Adx-WT or Adx-S112W did not produce any while Adx-D113Y caused a twofold and Adx1-108 a threefold increase in duanyu1670 formation as compared to basal levels. However, no typical apoptotic markers or decreased viability could be observed in these strains. Since we previously observed that an increase in mitochondrial duanyu1670 formation of about 60% above basal levels is sufficient to strongly induce apoptosis in mammalian cells, we conclude that S. pombe is either very robust to mitochondrial duanyu1670 production or does not undergo apoptotic cell death in response to mitochondrial duanyu1670 at all.

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