As multicellular life relies on cell–cell interactions, it is not surprising that this is not always peaceful: cells with higher fitness eliminate cells with lower fitness through cell competition. Cell competition has emerged as a quality control mechanism and occurs when cells differ, genetically or otherwise, from each other. However, the features that that distinguishes "winner" from "loser" cells are still elusive and whether there are key determinants for cell competition present in various contexts.
The team of researchers around Gabriele Lubatti and Antonio Scialdone found out that the cells "losing" the competition are characterized by defective mitochondria and are marked by sequence changes in their mitochondrial genome. The work suggests that differences in mitochondrial activity is a key determinant of competitive cell fitness, irrespective of the trigger.
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