Research report 2011 - Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

Insights into the nanoworld of mitochondria and the organisation of their genome

Authors
Kukat, Christian; Wurm, Christian A.; Spåhr, Henrik; Falkenberg, Maria; Larsson, Nils-Göran; Jakobs, Stefan
Departments
Mitochondriale Biologie
Summary
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells. They produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a “currency of energy” which is needed in all tissues. Damaged mitochondria or complexes that are producing the energy are known to be involved in different diseases and ageing symptoms. The mitochondrial genome is packed with additional factors in organisational units, the nucleoids. The presented data provide fundamental insights into the structure of nucleoids which in future might help to find new ways of handling mitochondrially inherited diseases.

For the full text, see the German version.

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