Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that have essential metabolic and regulatory functions. Earlier studies using electron microscopy (EM) revealed an immense diversity in the architecture of cristae – infoldings of the mitochondrial inner membrane (IM) – in different cells, tissues, bioenergetic and metabolic conditions, and during apoptosis. However, cristae were considered to be largely static entities. Recently, advanced super-resolution techniques have revealed that cristae are independent bioenergetic units that are highly dynamic and remodel on a timescale of seconds. These advances, coupled with mechanistic and structural studies on key molecular players, such as the MICOS (mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system) complex and the dynamin-like GTPase OPA1, have changed our view on mitochondria in a fundamental way. We summarize these recent findings and discuss their functional implications.

线粒体是具有重要代谢和调节功能的动态细胞器。使用电子显微镜 (EM) 进行的早期研究揭示了在不同细胞、组织、生物能量和代谢条件以及细胞凋亡过程中，嵴的结构——线粒体内膜 (IM) 的内折叠——的巨大多样性。然而，嵴被认为主要是静态的实体。最近，先进的超分辨率技术表明嵴是独立的生物能量单元，具有高度动态性，并在几秒钟的时间尺度上进行重塑。这些进展，加上对关键分子参与者的机制和结构研究，如 MICOS（线粒体接触位点和嵴组织系统）复合物和动力蛋白样 GTPase OPA1，从根本上改变了我们对线粒体的看法。