Journal
JOURNAL OF ASSISTED REPRODUCTION AND GENETICS
Volume 34, Issue 11, Pages 1405-1412Publisher
SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1007/s10815-017-1006-3
Keywords
Balbiani body; mtDNA bottleneck; Mitochondrial network; Selection of mitochondria; Oocyte
Funding
- [K/ZDS/006317]
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Early oocytes of nearly all animal species contain a transient organelle assemblage termed the Balbiani body. Structure and composition of this assemblage may vary even between closely related species. Despite this variability, the Balbiani body always comprises of numerous tightly clustered mitochondria and accumulations of nuage material. It has been suggested that the Balbiani body is an evolutionarily ancestral structure, which plays a role in various processes such as the localization of organelles and macromolecules to the germ plasm, lipidogenesis, as well as the selection/elimination of dysfunctional mitochondria from female germline cells. We suggest that the selection/elimination of mitochondria is a primary and evolutionarily ancestral function of Balbiani body, and that the other functions are secondary, evolutionarily derived additions. We propose a simple model explaining the role of the Balbiani body in the selection of mitochondria, i.e., in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) bottleneck phenomenon.
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