The Mitochondrial Proteome: From Inventory to Function

Mitochondria are central to cellular energetics, metabolism, and signaling. In this issue, Pagliarini et al. (2008) report the largest compendium of mammalian mitochondrial proteins to date. Together with proteomic studies in yeast, this study represents an important step toward the systematic characterization of the mitochondrial proteome and of mitochondrial diseases.