>>A knockout mouse strain is a far cry from humans, even glucose-gobbling ones.

Lab mice strains aren't just a far cry from humans; they're a far cry from wild mice.

Lab mice started out as "fancy" mice, bred for coat colors - so they were an obvious pick back when Mendel's work was rediscovered, just to see if the same rules applied to mammals, using coat color the way Mendel was using peas.

Since then, they've been bred to produce larger litters, reduced time to sexual maturity as a byproduct of the lab environment (the ones that produce pups first end up dominating the population without predation pressure).

There have been some attempts to use wild mice in labs. As I understand it, it didn't go well. They bite, will jump out of their cages when the top is taken off - and they're gone. Those few studies were unable to replicate caloric restriction results done in lab-strain mice (in spite of it being beneficial for lab-mouse longevity, it was negative for some, neutral for most, and positive for maybe 20%).

This might be tied to the lack of mitochondrial variation in lab strains, so I'd look at this study with more than the usual salt needed in mouse studies.

That said, thanks for bringing this study up! Mitochondria are awesome organelles, and disfunctions are suspected to be key to any number of chronic illnesses.

And - sorry to be "that guy" on lab mice, but most people don't seem to realize what a biological oddity they are.