Mitophagy, metabolism, and cell fate

Abstract

Mitophagy is the process by which cells eliminate damaged or superfluous mitochondria by degrading them within lysosomes. We show that during development, selective removal of mitochondria by autophagy induces a metabolic shift toward glycolysis that is essential for differentiation of several cell types. These findings suggest potential applications of cell-fate manipulation strategies targeting mitophagy.

Keywords

• autophagy
• metabolic reprogramming
• hypoxia
• bnip3l