Leigh Syndrome in Drosophila melanogaster: morphological and biochemical characterization of Surf1 post-transcriptional silencing.

Leigh Syndrome (LS) is the most common early-onset, progressive mitochondrial encephalopathy usually leading to early death. The single most prevalent cause of LS is occurrence of mutations in the hSurf1 gene. LSSurf1 patients show a marked and specific decrease in the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV (cytochrome c oxidase, COX). hSurf1 encodes an inner membrane mitochondrial protein involved in COX assembly. We established a D. melanogaster model of LS based on the post-transcriptional silencing of CG9943, the Drosophila homolog of hSurf1. Knock down of Surf1 was induced (i) ubiquitously, which led to larval lethality; (ii) in the mesodermal derivatives, which led to pupal lethality; (iii) in the central nervous system, which allowed survival; and (iv) at specific developmental stages. A biochemical characterization was carried out in knock down individuals, which unexpectedly revealed defects in all complexes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) included the F-ATP synthase (complex V) in larvae, and a COX-specific impairment in adults. Silencing of Surf1 expression in Drosophila S2R+ cells led to loss of COX activity associated with decreased oxygen consumption. We conclude that Surf1 is essential for COX activity and mitochondrial function in D. melanogaster, and provide a new tool to clarify the pathogenic mechanisms of LS. Gene expression profiling was carried out on controls and Surf1 Act-Gal4 KD third stage and first stage Drosophila larvae using the Drosophila 2.0 custom platform (Agilent Technologies). Total RNA was obtained from the whole body of 1st instar larvae for each genotype. Four biological replicates were analyzed for controls and Surf1 KD samples respectively for a total of 8 microarray experiments