Controlling the internal structure of mitochondria
(Phys.org)—One might think of mitochondria as devices for transporting electrons to their lowest energy state. Little bags of finely-tuned respiratory chain subunits which combine electrons extracted from food with oxygen, and ultimately excrete them as water. Others might justifiably fancy mitochondria tiny bundles of geometry. Their folded inner membranes pegged with various proteins complexes like the rolls of candy button paper we might have ate as kids. Actually mitochondria are both enzyme bags and geometrical objects: the latest research tells us that it is proteins which create the complex inner membrane geometry specific to each kind of mitochondria, and in turn, it is their precise geometry which permits the respiratory proteins to create useful work in the first place.