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Updated: Jan 20, 2026

Author Spotlight: High-Throughput Image-Based Quantification of Mitochondrial DNA Synthesis and Distribution
Published on: May 5, 2023
Limited predictive value of TFAM in mitochondrial biogenesis
Natalya Kozhukhar1, Mikhail F Alexeyev1
1Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA.
Abstract:
Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) plays an important role in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) transcription and replication. In some experimental settings, TFAM expression parallels parameters of mitochondrial biogenesis, which led to a widespread acceptance of TFAM as marker of mitochondrial biogenesis. We modulated TFAM expression in several experimental systems and observed that it fails to consistently parallel mtDNA copy number and expression of mtDNA-encoded polypeptides. We suggest that the use of TFAM as a marker of mitochondrial biogenesis should be avoided outside of systems in which its performance has been carefully validated.
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