Mitochondrial biogenesis: is an old dog still teaching us new tricks?

Abstract

Figure 1. The FASEB Summer Research Conference on the Assembly of the Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain took place between 5 and 10 August 2007, in Tucson, Arizona, USA, and was organized by D. Winge and E. Shoubridge. Participants of this meeting were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Ron Butow (Dallas, TX, USA), who died on 8 August 2007. Originally scheduled to present at the meeting, Butow cancelled his participation just shortly beforehand. Butow heroically battled cancer for more than 10 years and had remained an extremely active member of the mitochondrial community during this time. Butow was a giant in this field and throughout his career had used elegant genetic and biochemical approaches to study many areas of mitochondrial function, including protein import and, more recently, the organization and inheritance of the mitochondrial genome. His contributions to this field were enormous and he will be deeply missed by all in the mitochondrial and yeast genetic communities. A FASEB summer research conference held in Tuscon, Arizona, USA in August 2007 focused on the broad field of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes, their assembly and regulation. Although commonly referred to as the ‘powerhouse of the cell’, mitochondria and their functions are not limited to the aerobic production of ATP. Rather, mitochondrial metabolism interfaces with many cellular metabolic processes, such as lipid metabolism—both catabolic and anabolic—FeS cluster metabolism, haem biosynthesis, programmed cell death and metal metabolism, to name but a few. As mitochondrial function and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity are crucial to all eukaryotic cells, perturbations in the function of this organelle underlie many cellular metabolic disorders, and therefore give rise to various clinical disorders, from cardiac and muscle myopathies to neuromuscular defects (Shoubridge, 2001; Zeviani & Spinazzola, 2003; Fig 1). This FASEB conference saw the gathering of many scientists active in …