Journal
CELL RESEARCH
Volume 21, Issue 12, Pages 1662-1669Publisher
INST BIOCHEMISTRY & CELL BIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1038/cr.2011.182
Keywords
lysosomal degradation; paternal mitochondria elimination; C. elegans; maternal inheritance; mitochondria DNA; fertilized oocyte
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Funding
- NIH [R01GM59083, R01GM79097, R01GM088241]
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award
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In mammals, the inheritance of mitochondrion and its DNA (mtDNA) is strictly maternal, despite the fact that a sperm can inject up to 100 functional mitochondria into the oocyte during fertilization. The mechanisms responsible for the elimination of the paternal mitochondria remain largely unknown. We report here that this paternal mitochondrial elimination process is conserved in Caenorhabditis elegans, and that the lysosomal pathway actively participates in this process. Molecular and cell biological analyses indicate that in wild-type animals paternal mitochondria and mtDNA are destroyed within two hours after fertilization. In animals with compromised lysosomes, paternal mitochondria persist until late embryonic stages. Therefore, the lysosomal pathway plays an important role in degrading paternal mitochondria introduced into the oocyte during fertilization. Our study indicates that C. elegans is an excellent animal model
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