Mitochondria are often described as cellular power plants, but that shorthand misses one of their most important research features: mitochondria are dynamic, quality-controlled organelles. They fuse, divide, signal stress, exchange metabolites, regulate redox state, and help determine whether a cell can adapt to changing energetic demand.

Mitophagy is one of the main systems cells use to solve the mitochondrial maintenance problem. The term means selective autophagy of mitochondria: a damaged or unneeded mitochondrion is identified, marked, enclosed by autophagy machinery, and delivered to the lysosome for degradation and recycling.