FIGURE 3.

Mitochondrial fragmentation at the leading edge of the migrating cell. (A) Fragmented mitochondria (green) migrate towards the leading edge and aid in lamellipodia formation hence promoting migration. Mitochondrial ATP (higher ATP in the migrating cell shown with the green gradient) is essential for lamellipodia formation and hence migration (Zhao et al., 2012; Caino et al., 2016). ROS production (pink) at the leading edge also enhances cell migration (Lee et al., 2018; Ko et al., 2018). (B) Loss of mitochondrial fission or increased fusion prevents mitochondrial relocalisation to the leading edge (shown by the perinuclear gray larger mitochondria) and decreases lamellipodia formation thereby decreasing cell migration. Reduced lamellipodia formation could be due to decreased F-actin polymerisation and reduced ROS at the leading edge. Decreasing ROS also decreases cell migration (Wang et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2012; Desai et al., 2013).