Integrity of the yeast mitochondrial genome, but not its distribution and inheritance, relies on mitochondrial fission and fusion.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is essential for mitochondrial and cellular function. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mtDNA is organized in nucleoprotein structures termed nucleoids, which are distributed throughout the mitochondrial network and are faithfully inherited during the cell cycle. How the cell distributes and inherits mtDNA is incompletely understood although an involvement of mitochondrial fission and fusion has been suggested. We developed a LacO-LacI system to noninvasively image mtDNA dynamics in living cells. Using this system, we found that nucleoids are nonrandomly spaced within the mitochondrial network and observed the spatiotemporal events involved in mtDNA inheritance. Surprisingly, cells deficient in mitochondrial fusion and fission distributed and inherited mtDNA normally,

SUBMITTER: Osman C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4352819 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature