Research
Mitochondrial Protein Counts Vary 28-Fold Across the Tree of Life
The Brief
- An eight-organism comparison found mitochondrial protein counts vary about 28-fold across the tree of life.
- One parasite's mitochondrion makes no energy at all, according to the study as reported.
- Some organisms have mitochondrial proteomes that rival or exceed the size of the human mitoproteome.
Why it matters
The results show that mitochondrial protein content differs widely between species, so findings from one model organism may not generalise to others.
Who’s affected
- cell biologists
- evolutionary biologists
- parasitologists
An eight-organism comparison finds one parasite’s mitochondrion makes no energy at all, while others rival or exceed the human mitoproteome in size.