Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Mitochondrial function and phenotype are defined by bioenergetics

Nature Metabolism volume 5, page 1641 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Monzel et al.1 propose specific terminology inspired by several branches of biomedicine and life sciences to foster greater precision when discussing mitochondria, while labelling terms such as function and dysfunction as ‘misnomers’. We agree with some of the aspects presented in this organizational paradigm, as it provides direction on defining various mitochondrial phenotypes. However, we also contend that this way of discussing mitochondria may be counterproductive as it replaces and ignores important terminology in bioenergetics, while labelling other broad terms such as mitochondrial function or dysfunction as ‘misleading’.

Bioenergetics refers to the interconnected energy-transducing pathways in mitochondria that maintain cell phosphorylation potential. These concepts first gained emphasis in the 1940s and were later used to define mitochondrial function or dysfunction in cells. When integrated, measuring the various aspects of bioenergetics provides valuable information on the overall state of the population of mitochondria being studied. Bioenergetics is thus a diagnostic tool for mitochondrial function and dysfunction in the fields of biomedicine and the life sciences. Moreover, understanding the basic concepts of bioenergetics also led to the proliferation of technologies that explore mitochondrial function and dysfunction, which make this niche field more accessible to scientists in diverse disciplines. This has led to an explosion in research that has identified various mitochondrial phenotypes2,3,4,5,6,7,8. In fact, function and dysfunction are still successfully used to broadly define mitochondrial health using principles from bioenergetics. A recent review used function and dysfunction to broadly define mitochondria in vascular smooth muscle cell physiology9. The specific phenotypes adopted by these mitochondria in vascular health and disease were then more precisely defined using concepts from redox biology9. Thus, function and dysfunction should not be viewed as misleading misnomers but rather as broad generic umbrella terms to describe overall mitochondrial health that use bioenergetics as the proxy measure.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Monzel, A. S., Enríquez, J. A. & Picard, M. Nat. Metab. 5, 546–562 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Martínez-Reyes, I. & Chandel, N. S. Nat. Commun. 11, 102 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Mailloux, R. J., Grayson, C. & Koufos, O. Cells 12, 107 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Casanova, A., Wevers, A., Navarro-Ledesma, S. & Pruimboom, L. Front. Physiol. 14, 1114231 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Richardson, R. B. & Mailloux, R. J. Antioxidants 12, 674 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Popov, L. D. Cell. Signal. 109, 110794 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Koch, R. E. et al. Trends Ecol. Evol. 36, 321–332 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Sies, H. & Jones, D. P. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 21, 363–383 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Li, J. et al. Redox Biol. 64, 102778 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Human Nutrition, McGill University, Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada

    Ryan J. Mailloux, Cathryn Grayson & Luis B. Agellon

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Jason Treberg

  3. Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, Faculty of Medicine, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Helmut Sies

  4. Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Helmut Sies

Authors
  1. Ryan J. Mailloux
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jason Treberg
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cathryn Grayson
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Luis B. Agellon
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Helmut Sies
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan J. Mailloux.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mailloux, R.J., Treberg, J., Grayson, C. et al. Mitochondrial function and phenotype are defined by bioenergetics. Nat Metab 5, 1641 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00885-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00885-w

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing