Quantification of Mitochondrial Dynamics in Fission Yeast

Mitochondria are double-membraned organelles responsible for several functions in the cell including energy production, calcium signaling, and cellular metabolism. An equilibrium between fission and fusion events of mitochondria is required for their proper functioning. Mitochondrial morphologies have been quantified in yeast using image processing modules such as MitoGraph and MitoLoc. However, the dynamics of mitochondrial fission and fusion have not been analyzed in these methods. Here, we present a method for measuring mitochondrial morphologies, as well as estimation of fission and fusion frequencies of mitochondria in individual fission yeast cells whose mitochondria are fluorescently-tagged or stained. The latter relies on counting of individual mitochondria upon signal filtering in each frame of a time-lapse. Taken together, we present a simple protocol for analyzing mitochondrial dynamics, which can easily be adopted to other model systems.