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Mitochondrial Turnover Rate Essay

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The cell’s mitochondrial population is normally highly dynamic and exhibits variable turnover rates. The turnover process is accomplished by an actively regulated transcriptional network for mitochondrial replenishment that is coordinated with the degradation and elimination of senescent and damaged mitochondria by selective mitochondrial autophagy or mitophagy. Although mitochondria are constantly renewed, the ongoing rate of homeostatic QC processes in vivo is fairly low (Miwa et al., 2008) on the order of days, whereas in cells, it is more rapid (Hernandez et al., 2013). Mitochondrial turnover in the rat heart has an estimated half-life of roughly two weeks (Rabinowitz and Zak, 1975). Thus, for a typical cardiomyocyte under basal conditions (~1000 mitochondria), 1.5 mitochondria would be replaced each hour. Moreover, mitochondrial turnover may be regulated by the circadian clock as a number of OXPHOS enzymes show strong diurnal variation in expression. This may be related in part to the period of fasting during sleep; therefore mitochondrial turnover at night may be more active with a few percent of the mitochondrial population replaced each night. Mitochondrial turnover rates also vary with specific metabolic status of tissues, but can be greatly …show more content…

However, mitochondrial biogenesis is also activated in response to certain hormones, such as thyroid hormone, to oxidative stress, to an increase in the energy requirements of the cell, to inflammation, to electrical stimulation, and in certain mitochondrial diseases (Scarpulla, 2011). The result is the maintenance or an increase in the mitochondrial mass of the cell (Onyango et al.,

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