You are currently viewing the summary.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Summary
Sustaining a healthy population of mitochondria in a neuron requires a balance of de novo biogenesis of new mitochondria or mitochondrial components and removal of damaged mitochondrial membrane, proteins, and DNA (1, 2). Recent evidence suggests that mitochondria must be actively transported between the cell body and axon (2). A new study by Davis et al. (3) offers a surprising alternative: Axons expel mitochondria to neighboring astrocytes for degradation. This unexpected finding might reshape how we think of mitochondrial disposal in the nervous system.