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Figure 1. The research history of mitochondria.
Here, we outline key milestones in mitochondrial research history: the initial discovery and naming of sarcosomes; the observation of morphology and coining of the term “mitochondria”; the proposal of mitochondrial dynamics; elucidation of energy metabolism and the respiratory chain; characterization of mitochondrial ultrastructure, DNA, and semi-autonomy; identification of the cytochrome c apoptosis pathway, transport, and mitophagy; and the discovery of dynamics-related proteins, culminating in the analysis of fission/fusion mechanisms and novel mitochondrial functions. The data source for Figure 1 is generated based on references^{[1,5,6,8,11,13-23,29,35]}. The figure was redrawn and designed by the authors based on existing reference images. Some of the mitochondrial icons in this figure were created with BioRender.com. OXPHOS: Oxidative phosphorylation; MFF: mitochondrial fission factor; FIS1: mitochondrial fission 1 protein; DRP1: dynamin-related protein 1; MID49/51: mitochondrial dynamics proteins of 49 and 51 KDa; MFN1/2: mitofusins 1/2; OPA1: optic atrophy 1; TCA: tricarboxylic acid cycle.