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Lookup NU author(s): Millie Fullerton, Professor Bobby McFarlandORCiD, Professor Robert Taylor, Dr Charlotte Alston
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2020 The AuthorsMitochondrial complex II (succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is the smallest complex of the oxidative phosphorylation system, a tetramer of just 140 kDa. Despite its diminutive size, it is a key complex in two coupled metabolic pathways - it oxidises succinate to fumarate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electrons are used to reduce FAD to FADH2, ultimately reducing ubiquinone to ubiquinol in the respiratory chain. The biogenesis and assembly of complex II is facilitated by four ancillary proteins, all of which are autosomally-encoded. Numerous pathogenic defects have been reported which describe two broad clinical manifestations, either susceptibility to cancer in the case of single, heterozygous germline variants, or a mitochondrial disease presentation, almost exclusively due to bi-allelic recessive variants and associated with an isolated complex II deficiency. Here we present a compendium of pathogenic gene variants that have been documented in the literature in patients with an isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency. To date, 61 patients are described, harbouring 32 different pathogenic variants in four distinct complex II genes: three structural subunit genes (SDHA, SDHB and SDHD) and one assembly factor gene (SDHAF1). Many pathogenic variants result in a null allele due to nonsense, frameshift or splicing defects however, the missense variants that do occur tend to induce substitutions at highly conserved residues in regions of the proteins that are critical for binding to other subunits or substrates. There is phenotypic heterogeneity associated with defects in each complex II gene, similar to other mitochondrial diseases.
Author(s): Fullerton M, McFarland R, Taylor RW, Alston CL
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Molecular Genetics and Metabolism
Year: 2020
Volume: 131
Issue: 1-2
Pages: 53-65
Print publication date: 01/09/2020
Online publication date: 03/10/2020
Acceptance date: 30/09/2020
ISSN (print): 1096-7192
ISSN (electronic): 1096-7206
Publisher: Academic Press Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymgme.2020.09.009
DOI: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2020.09.009
PubMed id: 33162331