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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Feb 24.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2015 Jan 21;85(2):257–273. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.007

Figure 5. The Activation of Parkin Drives a Positive Feedback Loop Providing Ubiquitin as a Substrate for PINK1 to Complete Mitophagy.

Figure 5

Mitochondrial dysfunction stabilizes PINK1 enabling it to phosphorylate ubiquitin and Parkin. This phosphorylation event activates Parkin, which ubiquitinates substrates on the outer membrane. These ubiquitin chains on the proteins of the outer mitochondrial membrane provide additional substrates for PINK1's kinase activity causing a strong positive feedback cycle assuring mitochondrial clearance. OMM = outer mitochondrial membrane.