The internal compartmentation of rat-liver mitochondria: tomographic study using the high-voltage transmission electron microscope.

The three-dimensional organization of the internal compartments of conventionally fixed and embedded rat-liver mitochondria has been determined by tomographic reconstruction from tilt-series images collected on the Albany high-voltage electron microscope. The results indicate that the inner membranes of these organelles are predominantly tubular in the orthodox (expanded matrix) conformation, as previously suggested by scanning electron microscopy. In the condensed (contracted matrix) conformation, the intracristal space opens up into large irregularly shaped compartments which are connected to each other and to the external (intermembrane) space by tubes with approximately the same diameter (20 nm) as those observed in the orthodox state. These results raise several questions, in particular about the nature of the structural transitions that occur in the cristae during matrix expansion and contraction, and about the influence of inner-membrane shape on the diffusion of ions and metabolites between the intracristal and intermembrane compartments.