Mitochondria-Coupled Hitchhiking Drives Vimentin Intermediate Filament Transport

Mitochondria-coupled hitchhiking drives vimentin intermediate filament transport, with VIFs closely following mitochondrial surfaces at sites distinct from microtubule contacts.

• Why it matters: VIFs move like motor-driven organelles, but only a small subset is near microtubules, leaving how they engage transport machinery and whether other routes contribute unresolved.
• What they did: Live imaging and volume electron microscopy tracked mitochondria and adjacent VIFs, while TRAK1 depletion blocked anterograde mitochondrial transport and kinesin-1 or minus-end-directed motors redistributed mitochondria.
• The result: Inhibiting mitochondrial anterograde transport shifted both mitochondria and VIFs toward the nucleus, and forcing mitochondria peripherally or centrally redistributed a subset of VIFs accordingly.

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