MOTS-c: A Peptide Encoded Inside the Mitochondria
Almost every peptide in your body is encoded in the nucleus. MOTS-c is not — it is written in mitochondrial DNA, and that changes what it appears to be for.
Mitochondria carry their own small, separate genome, a remnant of their origin as independent organisms. For most of modern biology that DNA was assumed to encode only the machinery of energy production itself.
MOTS-c is one of a small group of peptides found to be encoded there instead — mitochondrial-derived peptides. Its existence suggests mitochondria are not only power plants taking instructions from the nucleus, but are also sending signals outward about their own state.
A status report, not a fuel additive
This is the most useful way to think about it. MOTS-c is studied as a signalling molecule that communicates mitochondrial condition to the rest of the cell, and that influences how the cell handles glucose and energy substrate in response.
Much of the research connects it to AMPK, the cellular energy sensor — the same pathway activated by exercise and by energy scarcity. That is the reason MOTS-c is frequently described as an exercise-mimetic in the literature: not because it substitutes for training, but because it is studied at the same signalling junction training acts on.
Where the research clusters
- Metabolic flexibility: how readily the body switches between fuel sources.
- Insulin sensitivity: glucose handling, the most-studied endpoint.
- Exercise capacity: the AMPK overlap above.
- Ageing: circulating MOTS-c levels decline with age, which is the observation that opened the longevity line of research — the same shape of finding as GHK-Cu.
What we supply
Our MOTS-c is a 10 mg lyophilised vial, HPLC-verified, with a batch-specific certificate of analysis available on request.
Supplied strictly for laboratory research purposes. Not for human or veterinary use.
Reviewed for research accuracy. Educational / research context only — not medical advice.