Mitochondria as protean organelles: membrane processes that influence mitochondrial shape in yeast

Abstract

Yeast mitochondria constitute a complex dynamic tubular reticulum almost continually undergoing fission, fusion, and movements along cytoskeletal filaments. Besides machineries directly implicated in these processes, a large group of diverse proteins, whose exact contribution is still a matter of debate, also influence mitochondrial shape. This review focuses on those factors that seem to affect morphogenesis only indirectly, through their involvement in mitochondrial protein import, lipid supply, inheritance, or ion homeostasis. Many of them stand on the intersections of pathways contributing to mitochondrial biogenesis. Their absence has multiple phenotypic consequences, one of the most distinctive being the loss of the typical tubular shape of these organelles.