Mitochondrial regulation of cell surface components in relation to carcinogenesis.

The recently discovered mitochondrial regulation of certain surface properties of yeast and mouse cells is explained in terms of the intragenomic conflict and interallelic competition that can arise within an organism from the cytoplasmic inheritance of mitochondrial genes. These considerations lend support to the view that an alteration of mitochondrial DNA is one of the steps in chemical carcinogenesis.