Fig. 3
From: Extracellular release in the quality control of the mammalian mitochondria
Mitochondrial Quality Control Pathways. Cells utilize a number of strategies to maintain mitochondria quality. a. Mitochondrial dynamics. A damaged segment of mitochondria splits off from healthy mitochondria. b. Lysosomal degradation of damaged mitochondria. Damaged mitochondrial fragments can be engulfed into phagophores, and delivered into lysosomes for degradation. This process is termed mitophagy. On the other hand, malfunctioning portion of mitochondria can be packed into small vesicles which bud off from mitochondria called mitochondria derived vesicles (MDVs). MDVs can be delivered to lysosomes and degraded. c. Mitochondrial extracellular release. (1) Damaged mitochondria can be removed through several extracellular release processes as shown in Fig. 2. (2) The lack of ATG8-PE on autophagosomes results in autophagosome-mediated mitochondrial release into the extracellular space. Figure created with BioRender.com