Scholars@Duke
Chantell Skye Evans

Chantell Skye Evans

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology
Cell Biology

Selected Publications

Mitochondrial motility modulators coordinate quality control dynamics to promote neuronal health.

Journal Article Curr Opin Cell Biol · August 2024 Dysfunction in mitochondrial maintenance and trafficking is commonly correlated with the development of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Thus, biomedical research has been dedicated to understanding how archi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Next questions in autophagy.

Journal Article Nat Cell Biol · May 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

A SIFI odyssey: Silencing the stress response amid mitochondrial import blockade to safeguard cell survival.

Journal Article Mol Cell · March 21, 2024 In a recent study in Nature, Haakonsen et al.1 identify the SIFI complex as a stress response silencer via its E3 ligase activity to target unimported mitochondrial proteins and stress response components for degradation via the proteasome. ... Full text Link to item Cite

3D reconstruction of murine mitochondria reveals changes in structure during aging linked to the MICOS complex.

Journal Article Aging Cell · December 2023 During aging, muscle gradually undergoes sarcopenia, the loss of function associated with loss of mass, strength, endurance, and oxidative capacity. However, the 3D structural alterations of mitochondria associated with aging in skeletal muscle and cardiac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Three-dimensional mitochondria reconstructions of murine cardiac muscle changes in size across aging.

Journal Article Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol · November 1, 2023 With sparse treatment options, cardiac disease remains a significant cause of death among humans. As a person ages, mitochondria breakdown and the heart becomes less efficient. Heart failure is linked to many mitochondria-associated processes, including en ... Full text Link to item Cite

O-GlcNAcylation regulates neurofilament-light assembly and function and is perturbed by Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease mutations.

Journal Article Nat Commun · October 17, 2023 The neurofilament (NF) cytoskeleton is critical for neuronal morphology and function. In particular, the neurofilament-light (NF-L) subunit is required for NF assembly in vivo and is mutated in subtypes of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. NFs are highly ... Full text Link to item Cite

Juneteenth in STEMM and the barriers to equitable science.

Journal Article Cell · June 8, 2023 We are 52 Black scientists. Here, we establish the context of Juneteenth in STEMM and discuss the barriers Black scientists face, the struggles they endure, and the lack of recognition they receive. We review racism's history in science and provide institu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Regulatory imbalance between LRRK2 kinase, PPM1H phosphatase, and ARF6 GTPase disrupts the axonal transport of autophagosomes.

Journal Article Cell Rep · May 30, 2023 Gain-of-function mutations in the LRRK2 gene cause Parkinson's disease (PD), increasing phosphorylation of RAB GTPases through hyperactive kinase activity. We find that LRRK2-hyperphosphorylated RABs disrupt the axonal transport of autophagosomes by pertur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fluorescence-Based Quantification of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Superoxide Levels using Live Imaging in HeLa Cells.

Journal Article J Vis Exp · May 12, 2023 Mitochondria are dynamic organelles critical for metabolic homeostasis by controlling energy production via ATP synthesis. To support cellular metabolism, various mitochondrial quality control mechanisms cooperate to maintain a healthy mitochondrial networ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Synaptotagmin 9 Modulates Spontaneous Neurotransmitter Release in Striatal Neurons by Regulating Substance P Secretion.

Journal Article The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · March 2023 Synaptotagmin 9 (SYT9) is a tandem C2 domain Ca2+ sensor for exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells; its function in neurons remains unclear. Here, we show that, in mixed-sex cultures, SYT9 does not trigger rapid synaptic vesicle exocytosis in mouse ... Full text Cite

Fluorescent pulse-chase labeling to monitor long-term mitochondrial degradation in primary hippocampal neurons.

Journal Article STAR Protoc · December 16, 2022 The accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, yet the dynamics of mitochondrial turnover in neurons are unclear. Here, we describe a protocol to monitor the degradation of spectrally distinct, "aged" mitochondr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using virtual interviewing to create a more accessible hybrid academic job market.

Journal Article Cell · December 22, 2021 Virtual interviewing has become ubiquitous with the academic job market. Here, we highlight the best practices for candidates and departments to consider when using virtual interviewing. We propose how virtual interviews can be leveraged and adapted for hy ... Full text Link to item Cite

ALS- and FTD-associated missense mutations in TBK1 differentially disrupt mitophagy.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · June 15, 2021 TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) is a multifunctional kinase with an essential role in mitophagy, the selective clearance of damaged mitochondria. More than 90 distinct mutations in TBK1 are linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and fronto-temporal dem ... Full text Link to item Cite

Responding and navigating racialized microaggressions in STEM.

Journal Article Pathog Dis · June 3, 2021 While it is commonly thought that microaggressions are isolated incidents, microaggressions are ingrained throughout the academic research institution (Young, Anderson and Stewart 2015; Lee et al. 2020). Persons Excluded from science because of Ethnicity a ... Full text Link to item Cite

ALS and FTD-associated missense mutations in TBK1 differentially disrupt mitophagy

Journal Article · 2021 ABSTRACT TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) is a multi-functional kinase with an essential role in mitophagy, the selective clearance of damaged mitochondria. More than 90 distinct mutations in TBK1 are linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and ... Full text Cite

Lysosomal degradation of depolarized mitochondria is rate-limiting in OPTN-dependent neuronal mitophagy.

Journal Article Autophagy · May 2020 Damaged mitochondria are selectively removed from the cell in a process termed mitophagy. This mitochondrial quality control mechanism is important for neuronal homeostasis, and mutations in pathway components are causative for Parkinson disease and amyotr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Degradation of engulfed mitochondria is rate-limiting in Optineurin-mediated mitophagy in neurons.

Journal Article Elife · January 14, 2020 Mitophagy, the selective removal of damaged mitochondria, is thought to be critical to maintain neuronal homeostasis. Mutations of proteins in the pathway cause neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting defective mitochondrial turnover contributes to neurodeg ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality Control in Neurons: Mitophagy and Other Selective Autophagy Mechanisms.

Journal Article J Mol Biol · January 3, 2020 The cargo-specific removal of organelles via selective autophagy is important to maintain neuronal homeostasis. Genetic studies indicate that deficits in these pathways are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and amyotrophic lat ... Full text Link to item Cite

The ADP/ATP translocase drives mitophagy independent of nucleotide exchange.

Journal Article Nature · November 2019 Mitochondrial homeostasis depends on mitophagy, the programmed degradation of mitochondria. Only a few proteins are known to participate in mitophagy. Here we develop a multidimensional CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screen, using multiple mitophagy reporter systems ... Full text Link to item Cite

Synaptotagmin 17 controls neurite outgrowth and synaptic physiology via distinct cellular pathways.

Journal Article Nat Commun · August 6, 2019 The synaptotagmin (syt) proteins have been widely studied for their role in regulating fusion of intracellular vesicles with the plasma membrane. Here we report that syt-17, an unusual isoform of unknown function, plays no role in exocytosis, and instead p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Autophagy and mitophagy in ALS.

Journal Article Neurobiol Dis · February 2019 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating and incurable disease involving the loss of motor neurons and subsequent muscle atrophy. Genetic studies have implicated deficits in autophagy and/or mitophagy in the onset of the disease. Here we revie ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functional analysis of the interface between the tandem C2 domains of synaptotagmin-1.

Journal Article Mol Biol Cell · March 15, 2016 C2 domains are widespread motifs that often serve as Ca(2+)-binding modules; some proteins have more than one copy. An open issue is whether these domains, when duplicated within the same parent protein, interact with one another to regulate function. In t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sex-specific regulation of follicle-stimulating hormone secretion by synaptotagmin 9.

Journal Article Nat Commun · October 20, 2015 The anterior pituitary releases six different hormones that control virtually all aspects of vertebrate physiology, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying their Ca(2+)-triggered release remain unknown. A subset of the synaptotagmin (syt) family of protein ... Full text Link to item Cite

An Engineered Metal Sensor Tunes the Kinetics of Synaptic Transmission.

Journal Article J Neurosci · August 26, 2015 UNLABELLED: The Ca(2+) sensor synaptotagmin-1 (syt-1) regulates neurotransmitter release by interacting with anionic phospholipids. Here we test the idea that the intrinsic kinetics of syt-membrane interactions determine, in part, the time course of synapt ... Full text Link to item Cite

Synaptotagmin 7 functions as a Ca2+-sensor for synaptic vesicle replenishment.

Journal Article Elife · February 25, 2014 Synaptotagmin (syt) 7 is one of three syt isoforms found in all metazoans; it is ubiquitously expressed, yet its function in neurons remains obscure. Here, we resolved Ca(2+)-dependent and Ca(2+)-independent synaptic vesicle (SV) replenishment pathways, an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Calcium binding by synaptotagmin's C2A domain is an essential element of the electrostatic switch that triggers synchronous synaptic transmission.

Journal Article J Neurosci · January 25, 2012 Synaptotagmin is the major calcium sensor for fast synaptic transmission that requires the synchronous fusion of synaptic vesicles. Synaptotagmin contains two calcium-binding domains: C2A and C2B. Mutation of a positively charged residue (R233Q in rat) sho ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mechanism and function of synaptotagmin-mediated membrane apposition.

Journal Article Nat Struct Mol Biol · June 5, 2011 Synaptotagmin-1 is a Ca(2+) sensor that triggers synchronous neurotransmitter release. The first documented biochemical property of synaptotagmin-1 was its ability to aggregate membranes in response to Ca(2+). However, the mechanism and function of this pr ... Full text Link to item Cite