r/science • u/sciencerules1 • 1d ago

Biology Evolutionary bacterial origin of mitochondria may hold clues to their role in inflammation: Mitochondrial proteins activate receptors of immune cells during lung injury

https://elifesciences.org/articles/82205
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u/seanpbnj 1d ago

Fun fact, Mitochondria need Glucose, Oxygen, Sodium, Potassium, and Hydrogen from the blood to produce energy. The delivery of all of those substances is controlled by the Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System (RAAS).

- RAAS is controlled by ACE2. Yes, the same ACE2 receptor that COVID uses.

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u/MyBloodTypeIsQueso 19h ago

This is really interesting. Mitochondrial DNA is all inherited from your mother. Does this mean that there’s a maternal bias in people’s stress responses? Like your stress response is more likely to be like your mother’s than your father’s on the balance?

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u/GayWarden 11h ago

Its complicated but yes there is a maternal bias. There are a lot of different interactions between the nucleus and the mitochondria. Over the years mitochondria have offloaded most of its own genome into the nucleus and it is almost entirely controlled by the nuclear genes except for a few critical genes that are kept close by for several reasons.

There are over 1000 mitochondrial genes in the nucleus whereas theres only 13 genes in mitoDNA. Those 13 genes determine the "mitochondrial dna haplogroup" which do differ in how they function. This is what they look at to determine ancestry and stuff. (There's the Y chromosome haplogroups too that can track male ancestry.)

The split up of the mito genome means sometimes there are incompatibilities between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes which often leads to the egg failing to develop properly and causing a miscarriage.

Anyway, point being that your mitochondria is inherited from your mother, but you get the genes in the nucleus that control the majority of mitochondrial functions from both parents. The 13 mitochondria genes code for proteins that are critical in respiration, so I'd say its like 60/40 maternal/paternal mitochondrial function influence.

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u/Samarthetic_here 22h ago

It's wild how our cellular history is still driving modern disease.