mitochondrial membrane

GO:0031966 · Membrane organelle · Membrane · Proposed

Either of the lipid bilayers that surround the mitochondrion and form the mitochondrial envelope. [GO:0031966]

Part of: mitochondrial envelope (GO:0005740)

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
mitochondrial lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Generic lipid-bilayer constituent of a mitochondrial envelope membrane when the exact inner or outer membrane is unspecified. `GO:0031966` GO:0031966 defines mitochondrial membrane as either lipid bilayer that surrounds a mitochondrion and forms the mitochondrial envelope. `GO:0005740` GO:0005740 defines the mitochondrial envelope as the double lipid bilayer enclosing the mitochondrion.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:2759 Eukaryota — VARIABLE: Canonical mitochondrial membranes occur with canonical mitochondria across eukaryotes, while some anaerobic lineages carry reduced mitochondrion-related organelles instead. [DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.015]
NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding-yeast mitochondria include both mitochondrial outer-membrane and inner-membrane proteomes. [DOI:10.1073/pnas.2135385100]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Budding-yeast model used for purified mitochondrial proteomics that recovered outer- and inner-membrane mitochondrial proteins. [DOI:10.1073/pnas.2135385100]

Mechanism graphs

Mitochondrial membrane scope (FUNCTION)

The generic mitochondrial membrane class covers either lipid bilayer of the mitochondrial envelope when the exact inner or outer membrane is unspecified.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
mitochondrial membrane	is part of	mitochondrial envelope	`GO:0031966` GO:0031966 defines the generic mitochondrial membrane as either bilayer that forms the mitochondrial envelope. `GO:0005740` GO:0005740 identifies the complete double lipid bilayer of the mitochondrial envelope.
mitochondrial outer membrane	is a	mitochondrial membrane	`GO:0005741` GO places GO:0005741 as an is_a child of the generic mitochondrial membrane term.
mitochondrial inner membrane	is a	mitochondrial membrane	`GO:0005743` GO places GO:0005743 as an is_a child of the generic mitochondrial membrane term.

Discussions

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep the GO:0031966 generic mitochondrial membrane parent distinct from exact mitochondrial envelope, outer membrane, inner membrane, and crista records. GO:0031966 denotes the generic mitochondrial membrane class whose is_a children include the outer and inner mitochondrial envelope bilayers. TOM import, matrix-facing respiratory chain localization, and crista architecture belong on the exact mitochondrial child membranes and substructures.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve an exact source-neutral grounding for the generic lipid constituent of a mitochondrial membrane. The record is exactly grounded to GO:0031966, but the generic lipid bilayer constituent is intentionally left as a reviewed-label-only component until an exact source-neutral lipid or membrane-constituent CURIE is curated.

Evidence

GO:0031966 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for mitochondrial membrane.
GO:0016020 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for membrane.
GO:0005740 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for mitochondrial envelope.
GO:0005739 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for mitochondrion.
GO:0005741 Gene Ontology cellular-component child term for mitochondrial outer membrane.
GO:0005743 Gene Ontology cellular-component child term for mitochondrial inner membrane.
GO:0005758 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the mitochondrial intermembrane space between the two mitochondrial envelope membranes.
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2135385100 Sickmann et al. 2003, 'The proteome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondria', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI:10.1038/nature12985 Friedman and Nunnari 2014, 'Mitochondrial form and function', Nature.
DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.015 Roger, Munoz-Gomez and Kamikawa 2017, 'The Origin and Diversification of Mitochondria', Current Biology.

Curation history

2026-09-14T02:42:25Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-14T02:43:11Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added generic membrane parentage, mitochondrial-envelope parthood, a reviewed-label-only envelope lipid bilayer component, Eukaryota and Saccharomyces scope, GO/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic inner-outer membrane scope graph, a generic-scope interpretation, and a lipid-grounding TODO.
2026-09-14T02:52:43Z codex · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Resolved #870 by replacing the GO-only Eukaryota taxonomic-scope reference with mitochondrial-diversification literature and adding the Roger et al. 2017 DOI to record evidence.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/mitochondrial_membrane.yaml