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Revolutionary view of two ways to split a mitochondrion

Organelles called mitochondria divide in at least two contexts: during cell growth and in response to mitochondrial damage. The finding that division is different in these two contexts sheds light on the regulatory pathways involved.
  1. Rajarshi Chakrabarti

    1. Rajarshi Chakrabarti is at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.

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  2. Henry N. Higgs

    1. Henry N. Higgs is at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.

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Shortly before his life was cut short by the guillotine during the French Revolution, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier made key discoveries about the biological energy-generating process termed respiration1. One of his insights was to realize that respiration is, as he described it1, “simply a slow burning of carbon and hydrogen, which is similar to how a lamp or a lighted candle works, and, from that point of view, animals who breathe are veritable flammable bodies who burn and consume themselves”. But how is this ‘burning’ kept under control in cells? Writing in Nature, Kleele et al.2 report some unexpected findings about an organelle at the heart of respiration in animal cells.

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Nature 593, 346-347 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01173-x

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