The lysosomal membrane protein LAMP-2 is dispensable for PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy.

Selective autophagy for the elimination of aberrant mitochondria, termed mitophagy, can be regulated by the kinase PINK1 and the ubiquitin ligase Parkin. The lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP-2) plays diverse functions in non-selective autophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy and selective autophagy for the degradation of RNA/DNA. In the present study, we investigated whether LAMP-2 plays important roles during PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. The results obtained clearly show that knockdown of LAMP-2 does not cause defects in mitophagy in HeLa cells stably expressing Parkin, indicating that LAMP-2 is dispensable for PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. The present study is the first to determine the potential role of LAMP-2 in PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy, thereby providing more insight into the sophisticated process of mitophagy.