Speaker: Jerzy Duszynski, PhD
Laboratory of Bioenergetics, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw – Poland

 HOST

Dr. Joan Guinovart, IRB Barcelona

Wednesday, 8 September 2010, 13:00h, Auditori Torre D

ABSTRACT

Mitochondria are crucial for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. Their involvement not only encompasses the energy metabolism, but also: apoptosis, cell growth, differentiation, movement, signaling and proliferation. Thus, any malfunction of mitochondria can have profound consequences for cell physiology. Severe mitochondrial malfunctions, leading to changes in Δ, are termed the mitochondrial stress and trigger magnitude of cellular stress responses. Cellular calcium metabolism and mitochondrial dynamics (balance of fusion/fission processes) are modified by the mitochondrial stress. Signaling from the mitochondria under stress conditions to the nucleus (also known as retrograde signaling) affects expression of nuclear genes allowing for cell adaptation to impairment of mitochondrial functions. These adaptive changes can lead to an enhancement of mitochondrial mass and expression of a number of mitochondrial and nuclear genes encoding for mitochondrial proteins. Mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling can be mediated by a number of molecules and one of them are reactive oxygen species (ROS). The mitochondrial stress affects production of ROS. On the other hand, increased ROS level has been shown to be a causative factor of diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. In the lecture the current understanding of mitochondrial stress mechanism will be presented.

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