[HN Gopher] 'Turbocharged' Mitochondria Power Birds' Epic Migrat...
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'Turbocharged' Mitochondria Power Birds' Epic Migratory Journeys
Author : pseudolus
Score : 72 points
Date : 2025-05-19 15:47 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
| coolcase wrote:
| Wouldn't mind some bird mitochondria!
| b800h wrote:
| Seriously, what would happen if we swapped out human
| mitochondria from a zygote for bird mitochondria?
| jyounker wrote:
| I don't think you'd get the same sort of effects, because a
| huge part of the mitochondrial regulation and function is
| carried out by genes and gene products from outside the
| mitochondria.
|
| It would be an interesting experiment though. I'd expect that
| they might not live, or that the cell would function sub-
| optimally, but who knows, maybe the cellular machinery is
| highly conserved.
| dejj wrote:
| Yes. Afaik from Nick Lane's "Oxygen" the Cytochrome Oxidase
| made from the mitochondrial DNA have to match the
| Cytochrome C made from nuclear DNA. Even slight mismatch
| seems to lower mitochondrial performance and is a problem
| why heteroplasmy (mixing of mitochondria from father and
| mother) seems to be selected-out.
| treyd wrote:
| Well what if you also swapped out those genes?
| dejj wrote:
| If your mitochondria have bird DNA and your nucleus has
| bird DNA, then you're a bird.
|
| There's an easier way. A single nucleotide polymorphism
| (SNP) that only and rarely is observed in Japanese can
| extend human lifespan greatly. Flip a single base pair.
| This seems the most promising first step for genetically
| engineering humans.
| dghughes wrote:
| You'd get Kids in the Hall Chicken Lady.
| mckirk wrote:
| And some whale blood!
| ljf wrote:
| Previously posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44051652
| (1 day ago, 78 comments)
| rbanffy wrote:
| Can the entries be merged?
| EGreg wrote:
| Can they? Yes. Should they? No.
| rbanffy wrote:
| Why have two separate discussions on the same topic a day
| apart?
| gherkinnn wrote:
| No layman's discussion about mitochondria is complete without the
| In Our Time episode on just that:
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md34
|
| It is one of my favourites.
| londons_explore wrote:
| What is the typical lifespan of ATP within a cell?
|
| Are we talking milliseconds or minutes?
| pfdietz wrote:
| According to the wikipedia page on ATP, the average ATP
| concentration in eukaryotic cells is 1 to 10 micromols per
| gram.
|
| According to
| https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?s=n&v=2&id...
| a single mammalian cell has a mass of 3 to 4 nanograms.
|
| Google AI tells me the average rate of ATP formation in a
| mammalian cell is around 10 million molecules per second.
|
| The ratio here ranges from 3 to 40 minutes.
|
| I imagine it varies greatly depending on cell type.
| eitally wrote:
| From an exercise physiology point of view, it's generally
| accepted that ATP-CP powered motility is possible for only
| about 10 seconds (that is to say, you only store enough ATP for
| about 10 seconds of high intensity work -- sprinting, maximal
| weight lifting, etc). After that, other energy systems become
| dominant ... both of which create ATP but depend on either
| glycolysis (anaerobic) or oxidative phosphorylation (aerobic)
| for the process/conversion.
| ck2 wrote:
| vaguely related there is a fantastic new PBS Space Time this week
| which suggests the "no alien life" fermi paradox may be related
| to how our mitochondria evolved by a series of fortunate
| accidents which may not be reproducible elsewhere
|
| https://www.pbs.org/video/is-there-a-simple-solution-to-the-...
|
| ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abvzkSJEhKk )
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(page generated 2025-05-23 23:01 UTC)