Modulating mitofusins to control mitochondrial function and signaling

Purpose: Mitofusin regulate the fusion of the outer mitochondrial membrane. MASM7 is an activator of mitofusins, which promotes mitochondrial fusion. Whereas, MFI8 is an inhibitor of mitofusins, which inhibits mitochondrial fusion, and subsequently promotes mitochondrial fission. The goal of this study is to identify set of genes and pathways that are up-regulated upon inhibition and activation of mitochondrial fusion. Isolated RNA from two independent biological replicates was analyzed using RNA-seq from mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) that were treated with MASM7 or MFI8.