Mitochondrial Energy Pathways Flashcards
What is the origin of mitochondria?
Endosymbiotic bacteria that were incorporated into eukaryotes 2 billion years ago
What do mitochondria do?
CoA production from pyruvate or fatty acid oxidation
Ketone body synthesis (from acetyl CoA via HMG‐CoA as an intermediate)
TCA (Krebs) cycle
Oxidative phosphorylation
What can mitochondria do to pyruvate or fat?
Completely oxidise to CO2 producing high yields of ATP
What happens to electrons that leak from the electron transport chain in the mitochondria?
They create reactive oxygen species (ROS) that degrade and destroy mitochondria as well as other cell components.
What can the infirmities of age be attributed to?
Loss of mitochondria and damage done by ROS
What are mitochondrial diseases attribute to?
Mutations in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.
Many of thoses diseases result in the pathological appearance of ragged red fibres.
What are the state of the mitochondria in a human egg?
Inactive
What meets the metabolic needs of the human egg?
Nurse cells of the follicle
What happens to sperm mitochondria at fertilisation?
They are discareded.
Therefore mitochondria are maternally derived.
What are ragged red fibres (RRFs)?
The hallmark of mitochondrial disorders that occur in no other metabolic disease.
Clusers appear as red subsarcolemmal deposits in sections of muscle stained with Gomori trichrome.
What is the evidence for mitochondria being of endosymbiotic origin?
They don’t divide one-for-one in cell division.
They have their own DNA and ribosomes (which is bacterial type)
What are migration patterns of people based on?
Mitochondrial DNA
