Investigation of Mitochondrial ADP-Ribosylation Via Immunofluorescence

ADP-ribosylation is a posttranslational protein modification, involved in various cellular processes, ranging from DNA-damage repair to apoptosis. While its function has been studied amply with respect to genotoxic stress-associated nuclear ADP-ribosylation, the functional relevance of mitochondrial ADP-ribosylation remains so far poorly studied. This is mainly attributed to the absence of powerful techniques able to detect the modification. However, the usage of recently developed anti-ADP-ribose-specific antibodies allows now to investigate mitochondrial ADP -ribosylation under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. In the below method, we describe in detail how to efficiently detect and quantify mitochondrial ADP-ribosylation via immunofluorescence.