Mitochondrial Effects on Seeds of Cancer Survival in Leukemia

The cancer metabolic alteration is considered a hallmark and fast becoming a road for therapeutic intervention. Mitochondria have been regarded as essential cell elements that fuel the metabolic needs of most cancer cell types. Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are a heterogeneous, highly self-renewing, and pluripotent cell population within leukemic cells. The most important source of ATP and metabolites to fulfill the bioenergetics and biosynthetic needs of most cancer stem cells is the mitochondria. In addition, mitochondria have a core role in autophagy and cell death and are the main source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Overall, growing evidence now shows that mitochondrial activities and pathways have changed to adapt with different types of leukemia, thus mitochondrial metabolism could be targeted for blood malignancy therapy. This review focuses on the function of mitochondria in LSC of the different leukemia types.

Specific and dynamic lignification at the cell-type level controls plant physiology and adaptability

Lignins, abundant phenolic cell wall polymers that accumulate in vascular tissue, were essential for plant terrestrialization as they enable sap conduction and mechanical support. Although lignification is currently understood as a random process, different cell types accumulate lignins with different compositions. The biological significance of these cellular differences is however still unknown. We performed single cell analyses to decipher the specific roles of different lignins and their residues on sap conduction and mechanical strengthening in plant xylem, using inducible pluripotent cell cultures and genetically modified whole plants. We show that specific lignins dynamically accumulate in each cell type and their morphotypes using distinct genetic programs, and that different lignin residues have non-redundant roles on plant biomechanical and hydraulic properties. Lignin is therefore a dynamic polymer changing composition to tailor the load bearing and sap conduction properties of each cells, in order for plants to adapt to developmental and environmental constraints.