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. 2010 Dec 9;6(12):e1001237. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001237

Figure 3. Constitutively active S6K increases mitochondrial aggregation and DA neuron loss in PINK1 mutants.

Figure 3

(A) Overexpression of constitutively active S6K increased the size of swollen or aggregated mitochondria in the DA neurons of PINK1 mutants. Mitochondrially targeted GFP (mitoGFP) was expressed in the DA neurons using TH-Gal4 driver [44] to help visualize mitochondrial morphology. Brains of 7-day-old adult flies of the indicated genotypes were immunostained with anti-TH antibody (red) to label DA neuron and anti-GFP antibody (green) to label mitochondria. Images of DA neurons in the PPL1 cluster were shown. Overexpression of S6K-TE in PINK1 mutant significantly increased the size of mitochondrial aggregates in DA neurons. The scale bar represents 5 µm. (B) Comparison of mitochondrial size distribution in PINK1 mutants with or without S6K-TE overexpression. Statistical significance was determined by Student's t test (**P<0.001, *P<0.05). (C) Overexpression of constitutively active S6K increased DA neuron loss in the PPL1 cluster of PINK1 mutant. DA neuron number was scored in flies aged for 14 days at 25°C. At least 7 flies were used for each genotype. Statistical significance was determined by Student's t test (**P<0.001). Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m.