Human cell with labelled mitochondria (yellow-red), actin- (white) and microtubule cytoskeleton (green). The nucleus is shown in blue. The magnification shows a STED image of a single mitochondrium where Mic60, a protein of the MICOS complex, is labelled in green and the F1F0-ATPase in the cristae is labelled in red.
About
The mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) is a large multi-subunit complex in the inner membrane of mitochondria that is required for the maintenance of crista junctions.
The MICOS complex is an interaction hub that connects the mitochondrial inner membrane to outer membrane proteins and presumably also to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).
The MICOS clusters exhibit a well-ordered arrangement in the mitochondria. We will investigate to what extent mitochondrial movements as well as fission and fusion dynamics and interactions with cellular structures such as the ER influence the inner-mitochondrial distribution of MICOS. Thereby this project aims to investigate the compositional and functional heterogeneity of MICOS clusters with respect to their sub-mitochondrial localizations using optical nanoscopy and electron microscopy.