Light microscopic analysis of mitochondrial heterogeneity in cell populations and within single cells

Mitochondrial Protein Abundance Gradients Require the Distribution of Separated Mitochondria

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that interchange their contents mediated by fission and fusion. However, it has previously been shown that the mitochondria of cultured human epithelial cells exhibit a gradient in the relative abundance of several proteins, with the perinuclear mitochondria generally exhibiting a higher protein abundance than the peripheral mitochondria. The molecular mechanisms that are required for the establishment and the maintenance of such inner-cellular mitochondrial protein abundance gradients are unknown. We verified the existence of inner-cellular gradients in the abundance of clusters of the mitochondrial outer membrane protein Tom20 in the mitochondria of kidney epithelial cells from an African green monkey (Vero cells) using STED nanoscopy and confocal microscopy. We found that the Tom20 gradients are established immediately after cell division and require the presence of microtubules. Furthermore, the gradients are abrogated in hyperfused mitochondrial networks. Our results suggest that inner-cellular protein abundance gradients from the perinuclear to the peripheral mitochondria are established by the trafficking of individual mitochondria to their respective cellular destination.

Modeling of Mitochondrial Donut Formation

Mitochondria are highly dynamic cell organelles. Continual cycles of fusion and fission play an important role in mitochondrial metabolism and cellular signaling. Previously, a novel mitochondrial morphology, the donut, was reported in cells after hypoxia-reoxygenation or osmotic pressure changes. However, the mechanism of donut formation remained elusive. Here, we obtained the distribution of donut diameters (D = 2R) and found that 95% are >0.8 μm. We also performed highly precise measurements of the mitochondrial tubule diameters using superresolution and electron microscopy. Then, we set up a model by calculating the mitochondrial bending energy and osmotic potential during donut formation. It shows that the bending energy is increased as the radius of curvature, R, gets smaller in the process of donut formation, especially for radii <0.4 μm, creating a barrier to donut formation. The calculations also show that osmotic potential energy release can balance the rising bending energy through volume expansion. Finally, we revealed the donut formation process in a Gibbs free-energy-dependent model combining calculations and measurements.

Mitochondrial network morphology: building an integrative, geometrical view

The morphology of mitochondrial networks is complex and highly varied, yet vital to cell function. The first step toward an integrative understanding of how mitochondrial morphology is generated and regulated is to define the interdependent geometrical features and their dynamics that together generate the morphology of a mitochondrial network within a cell. Distinct aspects of the size, shape, position, and dynamics of mitochondrial networks are described and examples of how these features depend on one another discussed.

STED super-resolution microscopy reveals an array of MINOS clusters along human mitochondria

The mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system (MINOS) is a conserved large hetero-oligomeric protein complex in the mitochondrial inner membrane, crucial for the maintenance of cristae morphology. MINOS has been suggested to represent the core of an extended protein network that controls mitochondrial function and structure, and has been linked to several human diseases. The spatial arrangement of MINOS within mitochondria is ill-defined, however. Using super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and immunogold electron microscopy, we determined the distribution of three known human MINOS subunits (mitofilin, MINOS1, and CHCHD3) in mammalian cells. Super-resolution microscopy revealed that all three subunits form similar clusters within mitochondria, and that MINOS is more abundant in mitochondria around the nucleus than in peripheral mitochondria. At the submitochondrial level, mitofilin, a core MINOS subunit, is preferentially localized at cristae junctions. In primary human fibroblasts, mitofilin labeling uncovered a regularly spaced pattern of clusters arranged in parallel to the cell growth surfaces. We suggest that this array of MINOS complexes might explain the observed phenomenon of largely horizontally arranged cristae junctions that connect the inner boundary membrane to lamellar cristae. The super-resolution images demonstrate an unexpectedly high level of regularity in the nanoscale distribution of the MINOS complex in human mitochondria, supporting an integrating role of MINOS in the structural organization of the organelle.

Nanoscale distribution of mitochondrial import receptor Tom20 is adjusted to cellular conditions and exhibits an inner-cellular gradient

The translocase of the mitochondrial outer membrane (TOM) complex is the main import pore for nuclear-encoded proteins into mitochondria, yet little is known about its spatial distribution within the outer membrane. Super-resolution stimulated emission depletion microscopy was used to determine quantitatively the nanoscale distribution of Tom20, a subunit of the TOM complex, in more than 1,000 cells. We demonstrate that Tom20 is located in clusters whose nanoscale distribution is finely adjusted to the cellular growth conditions as well as to the specific position of a cell within a microcolony. The density of the clusters correlates to the mitochondrial membrane potential. The distributions of clusters of Tom20 and of Tom22 follow an inner-cellular gradient from the perinuclear to the peripheral mitochondria. We conclude that the nanoscale distribution of the TOM complex is finely adjusted to the cellular conditions, resulting in distribution gradients both within single cells and between adjacent cells.