The MICOS complex (mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system) is essential for mitochondrial inner membrane organization and mitochondrial membrane contacts, however, the molecular regulation of MICOS assembly and the physiological functions of MICOS in mammals remain obscure. Here, we report that Mic60/Mitofilin has a critical role in the MICOS assembly, which determines the mitochondrial morphology and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) organization. The downregulation of Mic60/Mitofilin or Mic19/CHCHD3 results in instability of other MICOS components, disassembly of MICOS complex and disorganized mitochondrial cristae. We show that there exists direct interaction between Mic60/Mitofilin and Mic19/CHCHD3, which is crucial for their stabilization in mammals. Importantly, we identified that the mitochondrial i-AAA protease Yme1L regulates Mic60/Mitofilin homeostasis. Impaired MICOS assembly causes the formation of 'giant mitochondria' because of dysregulated mitochondrial fusion and fission. Also, mtDNA nucleoids are disorganized and clustered in these giant mitochondria in which mtDNA transcription is attenuated because of remarkable downregulation of some key mtDNA nucleoid-associated proteins.Together, these findings demonstrate that Mic60/Mitofilin homeostasis regulated by Yme1L is central to the MICOS assembly, which is required for maintenance of mitochondrial morphology and organization of mtDNA nucleoids. Mitochondria have a key role in oxidative phosphorylation and related cellular metabolism, in energy conversion, in programmed cell death, in cell growth and in diseases. Mitochondrial outer and inner membranes strongly differ in architecture and functions. The mitochondrial outer membrane forms a barrier to cytosol, and contains channels and the translocases of outer membrane, which is the main protein entry gate of mitochondria. 1,2 In contrast, the mitochondrial inner membrane consists of two morphologically distinct regions: the inner boundary membrane is in close proximity to the outer membrane and the cristae membranes that are large tubular invaginations. [3][4][5][6][7][8] The mitochondrial inner boundary and cristae membrane are physically separated by cristae junctions, which are narrow tubular or slot-like structure. 4,9 The mitochondrial cristae are arranged in regular arrays and are the main sites of ATP production in the mitochondria, but the molecules that are associated with the maintenance of cristae architecture still remain elusive. Recently, several groups identified a large protein complex, MICOS complex (mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system; previously named MINOS, MitOS, Mitofilin or Fcj1 complex ), that has a crucial role in the formation of cristae junctions, contact sites to the outer membrane, and the organization of inner membrane. [10][11][12][13][14] In yeast, MICOS consists of at least six subunits: Mic60 (Fcj1), Mic10 (Mio10/Mcs10/Mos1), Mic19 (Aim13/Mcs19), Mic26 (Mio27/Mcs29/Mos2), Mic12 (Aim5/ Msc12) and Mic27 (Aim37/Mcs27). In mammals, five s...

Imbalance in torque generation leads to engine speed fluctuation. To improve the idle engine speed performance, the torque balancing control problem is addressed in this paper for multi-cylinder SI engines. To evaluate cylinder-to-cylinder imbalance, the average torque in ignition-event scale is introduced as controlled output, which enables a feedback control to be performed without measurement of instantaneous torque, and the individual spark advances are chosen as control inputs. A linear discrete time model with single input and single output is proposed to represent the dynamics of the imbalance, where a sequentially switching function is introduced to describe the spark advance signals delivered to each cylinder and the differences in torque generation caused by the individual cylinder characteristics are equivalently modelled as unknown offset in the inputs. An estimation algorithm with the proof of convergence is presented to provide on-line estimation of the unknown offset under the passivity assumption of the system. Furthermore, a feedback control law which combines the unknown offset estimation and the model predictive control is proposed. Finally, the unknown offset estimation and the feedback control approach are validated based on the experimental results carried out on a six-cylinder gasoline engine test bench.