A Siah3 of relief: A role for mitophagy as a fail-safe during developmental axon pruning

Developmental axon pruning is controlled by a careful balance of pro- and anti-apoptotic signals, which are activated in response to external cues to sculpt mature neuronal circuitry. In this issue of <i>Science Signaling</i>, Abraham <i>et al.</i> define a safeguard against apoptotic axon pruning and illustrate that Siah3 represses Parkin-mediated mitophagy to control the availability of axonal mitochondria that activate the pruning process.