A coarse-grained NADH redox model enables inference of subcellular metabolic fluxes from fluorescence lifetime imaging

Mitochondrial metabolism is of central importance to diverse aspects of cell and developmental biology. Defects in mitochondria are associated with many diseases, including cancer, neuropathology, and infertility. Our understanding of mitochondrial metabolism in situ and dysfunction in diseases are limited by the lack of techniques to measure mitochondrial metabolic fluxes with sufficient spatiotemporal resolution. Herein, we developed a new method to infer mitochondrial metabolic fluxes in living cells with subcellular resolution from fluorescence lifetime imaging of NADH. This result is based on the use of a generic coarse-grained NADH redox model. We tested the model in mouse oocytes and human tissue culture cells subject to a wide variety of perturbations by comparing predicted fluxes through the electron transport chain (ETC) to direct measurements of oxygen consumption rate. Interpreting the FLIM measurements of NADH using this model, we discovered a homeostasis of ETC flux in mouse oocytes: perturbations of nutrient supply and energy demand of the cell do not change ETC flux despite significantly impacting NADH metabolic state. Furthermore, we observed a subcellular spatial gradient of ETC flux in mouse oocytes and found that this gradient is primarily a result of a spatially heterogeneous mitochondrial proton leak. We concluded from these observations that ETC flux in mouse oocytes is not controlled by energy demand or supply, but by the intrinsic rates of mitochondrial respiration.

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Coarse-grained modeling of mitochondrial metabolism enables subcellular flux inference from fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

10.1101/2020.11.20.392225 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Xingbo Yang ◽

Daniel J. Needleman

Keyword(s):

Fluorescence Lifetime ◽

Metabolic Flux ◽

Living Cells ◽

Coarse Grained ◽

Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy ◽

Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging ◽

Lifetime Imaging ◽

Metabolic Fluxes ◽

Subcellular Resolution

AbstractMitochondria are central to metabolism and their dysfunctions are associated with many diseases1–9. Metabolic flux, the rate of turnover of molecules through a metabolic pathway, is one of the most important quantities in metabolism, but it remains a challenge to measure spatiotemporal variations in mitochondrial metabolic fluxes in living cells. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) of NADH is a label-free technique that is widely used to characterize the metabolic state of mitochondria in vivo10–18. However, the utility of this technique has been limited by the inability to relate FLIM measurement to the underlying metabolic activities in mitochondria. Here we show that, if properly interpreted, FLIM of NADH can be used to quantitatively measure the flux through a major mitochondrial metabolic pathway, the electron transport chain (ETC), in vivo with subcellular resolution. This result is based on the use of a coarse-grained NADH redox model, which we test in mouse oocytes subject to a wide variety of perturbations by comparing predicted fluxes to direct biochemical measurements and by self-consistency criterion. Using this method, we discovered a subcellular spatial gradient of mitochondrial metabolic flux in mouse oocytes. We showed that this subcellular variation in mitochondrial flux correlates with a corresponding subcellular variation in mitochondrial membrane potential. The developed model, and the resulting procedure for analyzing FLIM of NADH, are valid under nearly all circumstances of biological interest. Thus, this approach is a general procedure to measure metabolic fluxes dynamically in living cells, with subcellular resolution.

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