Mitochondrial DNA

Endoplasmic Reticulum Key To Mitochondrial DNA Synthesis

 Florian Rosado  July 16, 2016

Aging, neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic disease are all linked to mitochondria, structures within our cells that generate chemical energy and maintain their own DNA. In a discovery with far-reaching implications, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have now shown how cells control DNA synthesis in mitochondria and couple it to mitochondrial division.

Mitochondria retain their own DNA from the very distant past, when they were a type of bacteria that moved into other cells and never left. All eukaryotic cells — in plants, animals and fungi — contain mitochondria, which allow oxygen-breathing organisms to obtain energy from respiration./.../