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Review
. 2023 May 19;45(5):4451-4479.
doi: 10.3390/cimb45050283.

Mitochondria Have Made a Long Evolutionary Path from Ancient Bacteria Immigrants within Eukaryotic Cells to Essential Cellular Hosts and Key Players in Human Health and Disease

Anna Atlante  1 , Daniela Valenti  1
Affiliations
Review

Mitochondria Have Made a Long Evolutionary Path from Ancient Bacteria Immigrants within Eukaryotic Cells to Essential Cellular Hosts and Key Players in Human Health and Disease

Anna Atlante et al. Curr Issues Mol Biol. .

Abstract

Mitochondria have made a long evolutionary path from ancient bacteria immigrants within the eukaryotic cell to become key players for the cell, assuming crucial multitasking skills critical for human health and disease. Traditionally identified as the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells due to their central role in energy metabolism, these chemiosmotic machines that synthesize ATP are known as the only maternally inherited organelles with their own genome, where mutations can cause diseases, opening up the field of mitochondrial medicine. More recently, the omics era has highlighted mitochondria as biosynthetic and signaling organelles influencing the behaviors of cells and organisms, making mitochondria the most studied organelles in the biomedical sciences. In this review, we will especially focus on certain 'novelties' in mitochondrial biology "left in the shadows" because, although they have been discovered for some time, they are still not taken with due consideration. We will focus on certain particularities of these organelles, for example, those relating to their metabolism and energy efficiency. In particular, some of their functions that reflect the type of cell in which they reside will be critically discussed, for example, the role of some carriers that are strictly functional to the typical metabolism of the cell or to the tissue specialization. Furthermore, some diseases in whose pathogenesis, surprisingly, mitochondria are involved will be mentioned.

Keywords: ancient bacteria; cardiolipin; cell death; mitochondria; mitochondria-related disorders; mitochondrial dysfunction; mitochondrial energy metabolism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
In the upper part of the figure, a descriptive path taken by the mitochondrion is reported: as an ancient bacterium enters the ancestral eukaryotic cell specializing in an organelle dedicated to energy production but also a target of ROS—which it produces itself—as well as of effectors, such as drugs, diseases, the environment, aging, or genetics, that cause it to malfunction. In the lower part of the figure, the transfer of mitochondria between cells is described: the healthy cell (donor cell) donates healthy mitochondria to the injured cell (recipient cell) containing dysfunctional mitochondria. Abbreviations: ROS, reactive oxygen species; TNT, tunneling nanotube.
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