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. 2021 Apr 6;12(4):358. doi: 10.1038/s41419-021-03640-9

Fig. 1. The role of mitochondria as signaling organelles.

Fig. 1

Mitochondria play greatly important roles in generating ATP through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The main mitochondrial-dependent signaling events: the release of mitochondrial ROS to induce the changes of gene expression through HIF/AMPK/Ca2+/Cn; release of metabolites to induce histone acetylation, histone and DNA demethylation, which determined cell differentiation; activation of AMPK regulates mitochondrial metabolism, mitophagy, and mitochondrial fission and fusion; release of cytochrome C activates caspases cascade reaction to induce cell death; release of mtDNA causes the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) can be used as a signaling platform. B cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2)-associated X protein (BAX) and BCL-2 antagonist/killer 1 (BAK), endoplasmic reticulum (ER), Ca2+/ Calcineurin (Cn), hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), Adenosine monophosphate‑activated protein kinase (AMPK).