Spreading of RC in single cells due to mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics and motility.

The re-mixing of RC-complexes in intact living cells was shown by using photoactivatable PAGFP fused to complex I. A. Scheme of events leading to a re-mixing of RC. A single event already spreads the signal due to mitochondrial fission dynamics (a), later mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics overlay with mitochondrial motility distributing the RC further (b). B. Quantification of CI-PAGFP re-location in single cells (n = 7) due to mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics and motility. C. Time-course of CI-PAGFP spreading in a single cell after area-restricted visualization of CI-PAGFP by photoactivation. After recording a z-t-series, a maximum intensity image from each z-stack was generated and converted into a binary image after background substraction. For better contrast, the images are depicted in the inverted mode.