Biochemical controls: intracellular reactions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 21, 2023, 20:16 (336 days ago) @ David Turell

A study shows genetic controls:

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-cellular-reveals-lipid-mediated-inter-organelle-biogenesi...

"Much like our body needs organs to function, each of our cells has inner "organs" called organelles. Within each cell, these organelles collaborate, with each performing specific functions: the mitochondria produce energy, the rough endoplasmic reticulum makes and folds proteins that are exported from the cell, the Golgi apparatus processes proteins and fats, and the peroxisome deals with the destruction of fats no longer needed by the cell.

"Professor Filipovska said it was already well known that the structures and functions of organelles in cells depended on each other for cell health, however, until now these relationships had not been systematically explored.

"To understand more about how their interactions influence cellular health, she and her team used advanced cellular biology techniques to visualize organelle structure and function in three dimensions.

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"In particular, organelles rely on specific types of fats (ether-glycerophospholipids) to function properly. The study found that when certain genes related to these fats were turned off in cells, it caused problems in various organelles. (my bold)

"'These gene changes led to a decrease in specific fats in the cells, affecting the structure and function of mitochondria—the cell's powerhouses," Professor Filipovska said.

"'Additionally, disrupted fats impacted how different organelles communicated and behaved. Certain cells, when lacking these fats, showed issues in their Golgi, a structure involved in processing fats. This led to changes that affected overall cell health."

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""Our work has identified that specific lipids can rescue the function of the powerhouses in the cell and improve their communication with the rest of the cell," Professor Filipovska said.

"'This finding has important implications for treatment of diseases caused by diminished energy supplies."

"Professor Filipovska said the study's findings had the potential to make a huge difference to clinicians' ability to diagnose disease and could pave the way for therapies for mitochondrial diseases and other diseases caused by cellular mutations, which have lacked effective treatments until now." (my Bold)

Comment: Studying these intracellular dynamics in all instances (see bolds) shows they are initially controlled by genes or mutations of genes. There is no evidence that cells control gene mutations with the exception of the immune system B and T cells. Most all cells in the body simply follow genetic instructions.