Specialized high-capacity mitochondria fuel cell invasion

Cell invasion through basement membrane (BM) is energetically intensive, and how an invading cell produces high ATP levels to power invasion is understudied. By generating 20 endogenously tagged mitochondrial proteins, we identified a specialized mitochondrial subpopulation within the C. elegans anchor cell (AC) that localizes to the BM breaching site and generates elevated ATP to fuel invasion. These ETC-enriched high-capacity mitochondria are compositionally unique, harboring increased protein import machinery and dense cristae enriched with ETC components. High-capacity mitochondria emerge at the time of AC specification and depend on the AC pro-invasive transcriptional program. Finally, we show that netrin signaling through a Src kinase directs microtubule polarization, which facilitates metaxin adaptor complex dependent ETC-enriched mitochondrial trafficking to the AC invasive front. Our studies reveal that an invasive cell produces high ATP by generating and localizing high-capacity mitochondria. This might be common strategy used by other cells to meet energy demanding processes.