Post-Translational Mechanisms Involved in Regulating Peroxisome Biogenesis, Functions and Organelle-Crosstalk

The eukaryotic organelle, the “peroxisome”, is now established as a key player in vital cellular processes. Peroxisomes are involved in the biosynthesis of membrane phospholipids, fatty acid β-oxidation, photorespiration, and the synthesis of signaling molecules. Peroxisomes also have roles in stress responses, ROS metabolism, and are reported to have emerging roles in immunity responses. Peroxisome malfunctions have detrimental effects on plant and C. elegans development, the capability of yeast to grow on fatty acids, drosophila muscle function, and are linked to several inherited diseases in humans, including Zellweger syndrome and neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy. The remarkable dynamics and importance of peroxisomes inspired their usage for biotechnological applications: for instance, they are used to improve fatty acid production and stress tolerance in plants, for intracellular enzyme production, and aid the production of biodegradable polymers and pollutant degradation.

Peroxisome biogenesis, roles, and crosstalk are expected to be fine-tuned under varying cellular conditions for example when exposed to environmental stresses, and between various developmental stages and tissues. This requires highly dynamic and versatile processes such as post-translational modifications (PTM). Identifying these factors and their mechanistic regulation of peroxisome biogenesis and roles will offer new insights into basic sciences, as well as supply approaches that can be useful for biotechnology and human benefit. Phosphorylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, and asparagine (N)-linked glycosylation PTMs found associated with peroxisomal proteins affect lipid metabolism and other functions. Advanced proteomics also helped to identify a huge number of PTMs such as phosphorylated peroxisomal proteins in human, plant, and other organisms like yeast. So far, a limited number of protein kinases were identified in peroxisomes of humans, plants, and yeast, and three protein phosphatases were reported only in plant peroxisomes with little knowledge on their functions.

This topic aims to gather and reflect on the recent advances about the regulation of peroxisome biogenesis, roles, and crosstalk in different organisms such as humans, plants, yeast, and drosophila. Scarce information about this topic is segmented in single reports and studies. We invite the submission of either original studies, mini-reviews, reviews, perspectives or commentaries on the following topics:

• Types and effects of cellular regulatory mechanisms involved in regulating peroxisomes
• New insights on the mechanistic regulation of peroxisome biogenesis, roles, and organelle crosstalk
• PTM roles in defining peroxisome functions and crosstalk with organelles
• Regulation of lipid metabolism and the crosstalk with lipid bodies
• Regulatory insights on the role of peroxisomes in immunity and stress signaling
• Regulation of peroxisomal proteins recycling and apoptosis (pexophagy) by biochemical modifications
• Identification methods (ex. proteomics) of PTM-associated peroxisomal proteins
• Identification of PTM-modifiers (ex. peroxisomal protein kinases, protein phosphatases, and ubiquitinases, etc)