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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2026 Mar 22.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2025 Oct 13;179:106419. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106419

Table 1.

Mitochondrial summary signals.

Function Summary Signal
1. Direct: Signaling molecule biosynthesis Metabolites, DNA & RNA precursors, ROS, cf-mtDNA, ions, bases, ATP, heat, small peptides, steroid hormones, catecholamines, monoamines
2. Direct: Energy production, distribution, dynamics ATP production & distribution, mitochondrial dynamics
3. Indirect: Regulation of nuclear gene expression Epigenetic regulation by Ca2+ signaling, metabolic enzymes, ROS, metabolites

Table 1: The MIPS receives and integrates diverse inputs, and outputs three types of summary signals to regulate cellular and systemic allostasis: 1) Direct production of outputs: including metabolites, precursors for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), reactive oxygen species (ROS), cell-free mitochondrial DNA, ions, gasses, ATP, heat, small peptides, and steroid hormones (Midzak and Papadopoulos, 2016; Miller, 2013), including sex (Velarde, 2014), metabolic (Goglia et al., 2002), and stress hormones (M. Picard et al., 2014); 2) Direct regulation of host cell activity via ATP production and distribution; 3) Epigenetic regulation of nuclear gene expression: Ca2+ signaling, metabolic enzymes, ROS and metabolites (Lombardi et al., 2019; Picard and Shirihai, 2022; Wiese and Bannister, 2020). MIPS: mitochondrial information processing system; DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid; RNA: ribonucleic acid; ROS: reactive oxygen species; ATP: adenine triphosphate.