Unequivocal evidence for the dynamic nature of mammalian mitochondria has been hard to find. However, the successful development of a transgenic mouse model carrying pathogenic mtDNA as reported here will cause us to take a fresh look at these dynamic organelles. (pages 934–940)
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Chinnery, P. & Turnbull, D. Mitochondrial DNA and disease. Lancet 354 (Suppl. 1), 117–121 (1999).
Nakada, K. et al. Inter-mitochondrial complementation: Mitochondria-specific system preventing mice from expression of disease phenotypes by mutant mtDNA. Nature Med. 7, 934–940 (2001).
Oliver, N.A. & Wallace, D.C. Assignment of two mitochondrially synthesized polypeptides to human mitochondrial DNA and their use in the study of intracellular mitochondrial interaction. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2, 30–41 (1982).
Enriquez, J.A., Cabezas-Herrera, J., Bayona-Bafaluy, M.P. & Attardi, G. Very rare complementation between mitochondria carrying different mitochondrial DNA mutations points to intrinsic genetic autonomy of the organelles in cultured human cells. J. Biol. Chem. 275, 11207–11215 (2000).
Hayashi, J., Takemitsu, M., Goto, Y.-I. & Nonaka, I. Human mitochondria and mitochondrial genome function as a single dynamic cellular unit. J. Cell Biol. 125, 43–50 (1994).
Inoue, K. et al. Generation of mice with mitochondrial dysfunction by introducing mouse mtDNA carrying a deletion into zygotes. Nature Genet. 26, 176–181 (2000).
Hales, K.G. & Fuller, M.T. Developmentally regulated mitochondrial fusion mediated by a conserved, novel, predicted GTPase. Cell 90, 121–129 (1997).
Santel, A. & Fuller, M.T. Control of mitochondrial morphology by a human mitofusin. J. Cell. Sci. 114, 867–874 (2001).
Smirnova, E., Shurland, D.L., Ryazantsev, S.N. & van der Bliek, A.M. A human dynamin-related protein controls the distribution of mitochondria. J. Cell. Biol. 143, 351–358 (1998).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turnbull, D., Lightowlers, R. Might mammalian mitochondria merge?. Nat Med 7, 895–896 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/90929
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/90929
