Dr. Martin Picard

There is division of labor.

There's some mitochondria, for example, in the muscle that are at the surface of the muscle, like just underneath the sarcolemma, the

the skin of the muscle cells, and then their mitochondria that are inside, where the actin, myosin, the contractile proteins happen.

Subsarcolemual mitochondria and intermyofibrillar mitochondria, two populations.

Their proteome is different.

Their molecular composition of those different types of mitochondria are different.

Their functions...

ATP synthesis, reactive oxygen species production, their ability to handle calcium and release calcium is different.

Their morphology is very different.

So even within one cell, you get this division of labor and differentiation of mitochondria.

And in every cell, mitochondria have a life cycle.

New mitochondria are born and old mitochondria die out, which is what happens in social creatures.

And there's a few other features like this that I think make mitochondria social organisms.

And once you start to think about mitochondria as social creatures, then you understand maybe a little better why they need to fuse with one another.

And if you ask Google, what do mitochondria look like or chat GPT or whatever, it shows you always the same kind of images.

It's like a little bean.

There you go.

And when they fuse, you get these like bean or kidney shapes or peanut shape, whatever your preference is, that fuse with one another.

And then they form these beautiful filaments.

So if you're lucky enough to work in a lab,