SORTED: With CS-MAP, researchers genetically label mitochondria in cells of interest, then use antibodies to isolate them for analysis.
See full infographic: WEBGEORGE RETSECKMitochondria power eukaryotic cells, but they do more than produce energy. These organelles, which contain their own genomes, RNAs, and protein-synthesizing machines, also regulate other cellular processes, including programmed cell death and calcium signaling. So it’s not surprising that mutations to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can cause a range of debilitating and deadly diseases.
Studying these ailments is complicated, says University of Massachusetts molecular biologist Cole Haynes. “You might get a mutation in a respiratory chain gene, which should be important, but it only affects a handful of cells. And then another mutation that doesn’t look so different may cause severe neurodegeneration or muscle defects.”
This unpredictability is thought to stem from the differing ratios of mutant and wildtype mitochondria that can occur in different cell types, says Steven Zuryn of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, adding that even genetically identical mitochondria can behave differently in terms of morphology and activity in different cells.
Techniques for analyzing such cell-specific differences are limited, however, says Zuryn. It is possible to mash up the cells of a particular organ and ...
