Vesicular transport is a means of communication. *
While cells can communicate with each other via secretion of extracellular vesicles, less is known regarding organelle‐to organelle communication, particularly in the case of mitochondria. *
Mitochondria are responsible for the production of energy and for essential metabolic pathways in the cell, as well as fundamental processes such as apoptosis and aging. *
In the article “Mitochondrial‐derived vesicles retain membrane potential and contain a functional ATP synthase” Reut Hazan (Ben‐Menachem), Dvora Lintzer, Tamar Ziv, Koyeli Das, Irit Rosenhek‐Goldian, Ziv Porat, Hila Ben Ami Pilo, Sharon Karniely, Ann Saada, Neta Regev‐Rudzki and Orphry Pines show that functional mitochondria isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae release vesicles, independent of the fission machinery. *
They isolate these mitochondrial‐derived vesicles (MDVs) and find that they are relatively uniform in size, of about 100 nm, and carry selective protein cargo enriched for ATP synthase subunits. *
Remarkably, the authors further find that these MDVs harbor a functional ATP synthase complex. We demonstrate that these vesicles have a membrane potential, produce ATP, and seem to fuse with naive mitochondria. *
The findings by Reut Hazan et al. reveal a possible delivery mechanism of ATP‐producing vesicles, which can potentially regenerate ATP‐deficient mitochondria and may participate in organelle‐to‐organelle communication. *
Imaging analyses of mitochondrial‐derived vesicles by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), verified that these vesicles are within a range of 50 to 200 nm diameter. *
Freshly cleaved mica surface was incubated with 10 mM MgCl2 solution for 2 min, then rinsed with 200 μl PBS. 50 μl of MDV solution was placed on the Mg‐modified mica for 10 min. An additional 50 μl PBS solution was added to the sample prior to scanning. *
Images were captured with atomic force microscopy in QITM¹ mode using NANOSENSORSTM uniqprobeTM qp-BioAC-CI (CB2 or CB1 ) AFM probes. The qp-BioAC-CI AFM probes with their rounded AFM tips (typical AFM tip radius 30nm) on three soft AFM cantilevers ( typical spring constant CB1: 0.3 N/m , typical spring constant CB2: 0.1 N/m, typical spring constant CB3: 0.06 N/m ) are especially designed for cell imaging. *
Figure 2 B from Reut Hazan et al. 2023 “Mitochondrial‐derived vesicles retain membrane potential and contain a functional ATP synthase”:
Characterization of MDVs from wild‐type mitochondria
B.
Atomic force microscopy. Representative AFM image and a 3D AFM image of one representative vesicle (WT), adsorbed on a mica modified with Mg2+ and imaged under PBS.
Please refer to the full article cited below to view the full figure.
*Reut Hazan (Ben‐Menachem), Dvora Lintzer, Tamar Ziv, Koyeli Das, Irit Rosenhek‐Goldian, Ziv Porat, Hila Ben Ami Pilo, Sharon Karniely, Ann Saada, Neta Regev‐Rudzki and Orphry Pines
Mitochondrial‐derived vesicles retain membrane potential and contain a functional ATP synthase
EMBO rep (2023) 24: e56114
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202256114
Open Access: The article “Mitochondrial‐derived vesicles retain membrane potential and contain a functional ATP synthase” by Reut Hazan (Ben‐Menachem), Dvora Lintzer, Tamar Ziv, Koyeli Das, Irit Rosenhek‐Goldian, Ziv Porat, Hila Ben Ami Pilo, Sharon Karniely, Ann Saada, Neta Regev‐Rudzki and Orphry Pines is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
¹QITM mode is a trademark of Bruker Nano GmbH