AUSTRALIAN FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, 2008

The Shine Dome, Canberra, 21-22 February

Session 7: Building the powerhouse of the cell: Mitochondria from plants to animals
Chair: Associate Professor Trevor Lithgow

Trevor Lithgow is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The University of Melbourne. His postdoctoral work at the University of Basel focused on determining how proteins are transported to mitochondria. The insights from this early work led to a personal award at the White House on the 10th Anniversary of the Human Science Frontiers Program. The Lithgow lab is internationally regarded in the discovery and understanding of the molecular machines used to build mitochondria. Most recently, the development of sophisticated statistical methods to discriminate members of protein families has been used to go from a specific understanding of the protein import pathway in the model fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to a comprehensive understanding of the components found in all organisms.

We have heard a bit through the course of yesterday and today about various organisms, sometimes in the biology talks, sometimes in the cross-disciplinary talks. We as humans are eukaryotes. That is a classification that we share with all animals, plants, fungi, diatoms and various other organisms. The two characteristic features of eukaryotes are that they have a nucleus that contains almost all of their genetic material and that they have mitochondria. There has been some debate over the past few years but it has settled down now, and it is clear that all eukaryotes do have mitochondria. Mitochondria almost always have some of the genetic material of the cell. They are famous, I guess, for being the powerhouses of the cell, and they do various other things as well, including regulating many aspects of metabolism, some of which we will hear about today.