Barth syndrome (BTHS) is a cardiomyopathy caused by the loss of tafazzin, a mitochondrial acyltransferase involved in the maturation of the glycerophospholipid cardiolipin. It has remained enigmatic as to why a systemic loss of cardiolipin leads to cardiomyopathy. Using a genetic ablation of tafazzin function in the BTHS mouse model, we identified severe structural changes in respiratory chain supercomplexes at a pre‐onset stage of the disease. This reorganization of supercomplexes was specific to cardiac tissue and could be recapitulated in cardiomyocytes derived from BTHS patients. Moreover, our analyses demonstrate a cardiac‐specific loss of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), an enzyme linking the respiratory chain with the tricarboxylic acid cycle. As a similar defect of SDH is apparent in patient cell‐derived cardiomyocytes, we conclude that these defects represent a molecular basis for the cardiac pathology in Barth syndrome.

SummaryMitochondria fulfill vital metabolic functions and act as crucial cellular signaling hubs, integrating their metabolic status into the cellular context. Here, we show that defective cardiolipin remodeling, upon loss of the cardiolipin acyl transferase tafazzin, decreases HIF-1α signaling in hypoxia. Tafazzin deficiency does not affect posttranslational HIF-1α regulation but rather HIF-1α gene expression, a dysfunction recapitulated in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes from Barth syndrome patients with tafazzin deficiency. RNA-seq analyses confirmed drastically altered signaling in tafazzin mutant cells. In hypoxia, tafazzin-deficient cells display reduced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) perturbing NF-κB activation and concomitantly HIF-1α gene expression. Tafazzin-deficient mice hearts display reduced HIF-1α levels and undergo maladaptive hypertrophy with heart failure in response to pressure overload challenge. We conclude that defective mitochondrial cardiolipin remodeling dampens HIF-1α signaling due to a lack of NF-κB activation through reduced mitochondrial ROS production, decreasing HIF-1α transcription.

Cytochrome c oxidase of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation system reduces molecular oxygen with redox equivalent-derived electrons. The conserved mitochondrial-encoded COX1- and COX2-subunits are the heme- and copper-center containing core subunits that catalyze water formation. COX1 and COX2 initially follow independent biogenesis pathways creating assembly modules with subunit-specific, chaperone-like assembly factors that assist in redox centers formation. Here, we find that COX16, a protein required for cytochrome c oxidase assembly, interacts specifically with newly synthesized COX2 and its copper center-forming metallochaperones SCO1, SCO2, and COA6. The recruitment of SCO1 to the COX2-module is COX16- dependent and patient-mimicking mutations in SCO1 affect interaction with COX16. These findings implicate COX16 in CuA-site formation. Surprisingly, COX16 is also found in COX1-containing assembly intermediates and COX2 recruitment to COX1. We conclude that COX16 participates in merging the COX1 and COX2 assembly lines.