Mitotic assembly of respiratory supercomplexes ensures accurate cell division and fuels tumor growth.

Enhanced assembly of mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes during mitosis in cancer cells is linked to accurate cell division and tumor growth suppression.

• Why it matters: Understanding how mitochondria coordinate structural and metabolic changes during mitosis is crucial, as disruptions can lead to cell division errors and impact cancer progression.
• What they did: Proteomic analysis of BN-PAGE fractions in HeLa and MDA-MB-468 cells revealed that supercomplex assembly increases during mitosis, driven by upregulation of NDUFA3 and promoted by CDK1-mediated translation.
• The result: Disrupting supercomplex formation impairs mitochondrial function, causes chromosome segregation defects, and suppresses tumor growth, highlighting supercomplex assembly as a potential therapeutic target.