As a central hub for cellular metabolism and intracellular signalling, the mitochondrion is a pivotal organelle, dysfunction of which has been linked to several human diseases including neurodegenerative disorders, and in particular Parkinson's disease. An inherent challenge that mitochondria face is the continuous exposure to diverse stresses which increase their likelihood of dysregulation. In response, eukaryotic cells have evolved sophisticated quality control mechanisms to monitor, identify, repair and/or eliminate abnormal or misfolded proteins within the mitochondrion and/or the dysfunctional mitochondrion itself. Chaperones identify unstable or otherwise abnormal conformations in mitochondrial proteins and can promote their refolding to recover their correct conformation and stability. However, if repair is not possible, the abnormal protein is selectively degraded to prevent potentially damaging interactions with other proteins or its oligomerization into toxic multimeric complexes. The autophagic-lysosomal system and the ubiquitin-proteasome system mediate the selective and targeted degradation of such abnormal or misfolded protein species. Mitophagy (a specific kind of autophagy) mediates the selective elimination of dysfunctional mitochondria, in order to prevent the deleterious effects the dysfunctional organelles within the cell. Despite our increasing understanding of the molecular responses toward dysfunctional mitochondria, many key aspects remain relatively poorly understood. Herein, we review the emerging mechanisms of mitochondrial quality control including quality control strategies coupled to mitochondrial import mechanisms. In addition, we review the molecular mechanisms regulating mitophagy with an emphasis on the regulation of PINK1/PARKIN-mediated mitophagy in cellular physiology and in the context of Parkinson's disease cell biology.

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Selective protein degradation maintains cellular homeostasis, but this process is disrupted in many diseases. Targeted protein degradation (TPD) approaches, built upon existing cellular mechanisms, are promising methods for therapeutically regulating protein levels. Here, we review the diverse palette of tools that are now available for doing so throughout the gene expression pathway and in specific cellular compartments. These include methods for directly removing targeted proteins via the ubiquitin proteasome system with proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) or dephosphorylation targeting chimeras (DEPTACs). Similar effects can also be achieved through the lysosomal system with autophagy‐targeting chimeras (AUTACs), autophagosome tethering compounds (ATTECs), and lysosome targeting chimeras (LYTACs). Other methods act upstream to degrade RNAs (ribonuclease targeting chimeras; RIBOTACs) or transcription factors (transcription factor targeting chimeras; TRAFTACs), offering control throughout the gene expression process. We highlight the evolution and function of these methods and discuss their clinical implications in diverse disease contexts.