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Mitochondria importance articles
This week’s importance briefs on mitochondria preprints. Free in the browser. Prior weeks stay on /archive. Machine JSON remains available via x402 for bots.
5 articles · updated 2026-11-07T02:22Z
- biorxiv2026-11-03score 96OXPHOSubiquinonesuccinate dehydrogenase
A ubiquinone-biosynthesis microdomain, not bulk Q supply, is required for succinate dehydrogenase in Toxoplasma that lacks Complex I
Toxoplasma gondii has no Complex I. In that mitochondrion, ubiquinone (UQ) biosynthesis proteins physically associate with parasite-specific succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) subunits and co-migrate as a high-molecular-weight assembly. Knockdown of TgCoq4 lowers SDH activity, and adding exogenous UQ to the assay does not restore it. Succinate over-reduces the UQ pool and fails to reach the uncoupler-stimulated ceiling that malate and TMPD/ascorbate can still reach. Complex III also sits with the UQ-synthesis machinery. Respiration here is organized as a biosynthesis-SDH microdomain, not as a freely mixing Q pool.
Source preprint: A respiratory microdomain links ubiquinone biosynthesis to succinate dehydrogenase in an apicomplexan mitochondrion lacking Complex I
- biorxiv2026-11-03score 95lipoylationOXPHOSgene therapy
Bacterial LplA plus lipoic acid rescues lethal Lipt1 myopathy by restoring mitochondrial lipoylation and OXPHOS
In a muscle-specific Lipt1-deficient mouse that survives embryonic lethality, adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery of bacterial lipoate protein ligase A (LplA) plus lipoic acid reconstitutes mitochondrial protein lipoylation and oxidative phosphorylation in situ. That energetic rescue suppresses PI3K-Akt hyperactivation, restores autophagic clearance, recovers motor function, and reverses hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The intervention bypasses the mammalian endogenous lipoylation pathway rather than repairing it.
Source preprint: LplA-mediated rescue of lethal myopathy and cardiomyopathy in mitochondrial lipoylation-deficient mammalian caused by Lipt1
- biorxiv2026-10-29score 94Complex ImtDNAheteroplasmy
Complex I heteroplasmy in MT-ND1 or MT-ND5 is enough to drop neuronal membrane potential and stall commitment
DddA-derived cytosine base editors (DdCBE) introduce pathogenic heteroplasmic variants of MT-ND1 or MT-ND5 into Neurogenin 2 (NGN2)-inducible human iPSCs with low off-target editing. Heteroplasmy holds through subclonal isolation and differentiation into induced neurons. The same Complex I variants barely change mitochondrial energy metabolism in undifferentiated iPSCs, yet they reduce mitochondrial membrane potential in induced neurons and drive a transcriptional program of impaired neuronal commitment, even at relatively low heteroplasmy.
Source preprint: Mitochondrial genome editing reveals the impact of complex I heteroplasmic variants on human neurogenesis
- biorxiv2026-10-19score 93mitophagyParkinPINK1
Mitophagy is the survival program after ultrasound-microbubble perforation, and blocking it kills the cell
Ultrasound-stimulated microbubble (USMB) sonoporation perforates the plasma membrane, leaks ATP and amino acids, fragments mitochondria, and drops mitochondrial membrane potential. Cells that live do so through AMPK-dependent autophagy and Parkin-dependent mitophagy. Parkin silencing or PINK1 inhibition augments death when combined with USMB, which is the combination the authors propose for solid tumors.
Source preprint: Mitophagy is required for cell survival upon ultrasound and microbubble therapeutic exposure
- biorxiv2026-10-30score 92MAMcholesterolER-mitochondria contacts
HDL cholesterol arriving at the ER through SR-B1 is the cue that assembles mitochondria-associated membranes
Plasma-membrane cholesterol delivered by high-density lipoproteins (HDL) through scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1) is rapidly moved to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where that sterol pool drives assembly of mitochondria-associated ER membranes (MAMs). Once formed, those contacts promote ER-mitochondria communication, esterify surplus cholesterol, and suppress cholesterol biosynthesis. The finding puts MAM assembly under extracellular lipoprotein supply rather than treating contacts as a static architecture.
Source preprint: Cholesterol availability drives the assembly of mitochondria-associated ER membranes