This book provides the first modern and truly comprehensive coverage of the biochemistry, genetics, and pathology of mitochondria in different organisms. It particularly focuses on the recent advances in our understanding of basic mitochondrial research to the consequences of dysfunction at the molecular level. (Cover)

Nearly a century of scientific research has revealed that mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the most common and consistent phenotypes of cancer cells. A number of notable differences in the mitochondria of normal and cancer cells have been described. These include differences in mitochondrial metabolic activity, molecular composition of mitochondria and mtDNA sequence, as well as in alteration of nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins. This book, Mitochondria and Cancer, edited by Keshav K. Singh and Leslie C. Costello, presents thorough analyses of mitochondrial dysfunction as one of the hallmarks of cancer, discusses the clinical implications of mitochondrial defects in cancer, and as unique cellular targets for novel and selective anti-cancer therapy.

Mitochondrial cytopathies are mutations in the inherited maternal mitochondrial genome, or the nuclear DNA-mutation. Mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders (RCD) are a group of genetically and clinically heterogeneous diseases, due to the fact that protein components of the respiratory chain are encoded by both mitochondrial and nuclear genomes and are essential in all cells. In addition, the biogenesis, structure and function of mitochondria, including DNA replication, transcription, and translation, all require nuclear encoded genes. Since mitochondria are present in every cell, every tissue, mitochondrial disorder usually affects multiple organs.

The Biogenesis of Mitochondria: Transcriptional, Translational and Genetic Aspects covers the symposium, ""Biogenesis of Mitochondria"", held in Rosa Marina near Bari, Italy in June 1973. Organized into three parts, this book first discusses the mechanism, products, and role of mitochondrial DNA in mitochondrial transcription, including the genetic aspects of the process. Subsequent parts elucidate the characteristics of the mitochondrial protein synthetic machinery, as well as the synthesis of mitochondrial proteins.

This volume investigates how the mitochondrial genome is transmitted, segregated, and inherited. It starts by describing mtDNA mutations and deletions and how these impact on the offspring’s well-being. It progresses to discuss how mutations to the mtDNA-nuclear-encoded transcription, replication and translational factors lead to mtDNA-depletion syndromes and how these affect cellular function and lead to the pathology of human mitochondrial disease. It also highlights the importance of the mitochondrial assembly factors and how mutations to these can lead to mitochondrial disease. The reader is then introduced to how mtDNA is transmitted through the oocyte and how stem cells can be used to study mitochondrial biogenesis and mtDNA replication and transcription in undifferentiated pluripotent and differentiating cells and how mitochondria adapt during this process. It then discusses how diseases like cancer are initiated and regulated by mutations to mitochondrial DNA and dysfunctional mitochondria. Finally, it draws on assisted reproductive technologies to discuss how some of these approaches might be adapted to prevent the transmission of mutant and deleted mtDNA from one generation to the next.