Mitochondria-Rough-ER Contacts in The Liver Regulate Systemic Lipid Homeostasis

Contacts between organelles create microdomains that play major roles in regulating key intracellular activities and signaling pathways, but whether they also regulate systemic functions remains unknown. Here, we report the ultrastructural organization and dynamics of the inter-organellar contact established by rough-Endoplasmic Reticulum closely wrapped around the mitochondria (wrappER). To elucidate the in vivo function of this contact, mouse liver fractions enriched in wrappER-associated-mitochondria are analyzed by transcriptomics, proteomics and lipidomics. The biochemical signature of the wrappER points to a role in the biogenesis of very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL). Altering wrappER-mitochondria contacts curtails VLDL secretion and increases hepatic fatty acids, lipid droplets and neutral lipid content. Conversely, acute liver-specific ablation of Mttp, the most upstream regulator of VLDL biogenesis, recapitulates this hepatic dyslipidemia phenotype and promotes remodelling of the wrappER-mitochondria contact. The discovery that liver wrappER-mitochondria contacts participate in VLDL biology suggests an involvement of inter-organelle contacts in systemic lipid homeostasis. mRNA profiles of liver postnuclear lysates and of the corresponding wrappER-associated mitochondria (WAM) fraction were generated by deep sequencing (n=6 per sample type). The transcriptomic analysis shown in this study were performed by the Genomics Center of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Québec City, Canada