Data from: Diffusive spreading across dynamic mitochondrial network architectures

Networks of physical units can vary from a stationary set of
spatially-embedded links to a collection of mobile agents that undergo
transient social interactions. In living cells, mitochondria form
architectures that span across these regimes, transitioning between
fragmented, partly connected, and highly fused structures depending on
cell type and state. Diffusive transport of biomolecular components
through these networks limits the heterogeneity of the mitochondrial
population. Here we address the connection between dynamic network
architecture and the rate of diffusive mixing through simulations and
analytic models that incorporate fusion, fission, and rearrangement. We
find that the material delivered from a source to the rest of the network
depends on the network dimensionality and a balance of competing
timescales for encounter, fusion, and diffusive dispersion. We extract
morphological and dynamic parameters for mitochondrial networks in three
human cell lines, demonstrating that different cells span across both the
physical and social network regimes. Mixing in mitochondrial networks is
shown to be limited by material transport through connected tubules for
slowly-diffusing particles and by inter-mitochondrial encounter rates for
rapidly diffusing ones. These results provide a quantitative basis for
predicting the homogenization of proteins, lipids, ions, or genetic
material through the mitochondrial population. The general principles
identified in this work capture diffusive spreading through both social
and physical networks, unifying a continuum of spatial network
architectures. These data comprise Airyscan fluorescence micrographs of
mitochondrial network dynamics in human fibroblast, osteosarcoma, and
neuroblastoma cells labeled with Mitotracker dye and SYBR Gold, and
accompanying capture metadata.