title: Kinetics and specificity of paternal mitochondrial elimination in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: In most eukaryotes, mitochondria are inherited maternally. The autophagy process is critical for paternal mitochondrial elimination (PME) in Caenorhabditis elegans, but how paternal mitochondria, but not maternal mitochondria, are selectively targeted for degradation is poorly understood. Here we report that mitochondrial dynamics have a profound effect on PME. A defect in fission of paternal mitochondria delays PME, whereas a defect in fusion of paternal mitochondria accelerates PME. Surprisingly, a defect in maternal mitochondrial fusion delays PME, which is reversed by a fission defect in maternal mitochondria or by increasing maternal mitochondrial membrane potential using oligomycin. Electron microscopy and tomography analyses reveal that a proportion of maternal mitochondria are compromised when they fail to fuse normally, leading to their competition for the autophagy machinery with damaged paternal mitochondria and delayed PME. Our study indicates that mitochondrial dynamics play a critical role in regulating both the kinetics and the specificity of PME.
authors: School of Life Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: School of Life Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Lianwan
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: School of Life Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.|Tsinghua University-Peking University Joint Center for Life Science, Beijing 100084, China.
authors: Qian
authors: Q
authors: Liang
authors: Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana USA.
authors: Xiao-Ming
authors: XM
authors: Yin
authors: Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Long
authors: 0000-0002-0562-6681
authors: L
authors: Miao
authors: State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
authors: Byung-Ho
authors: 0000-0002-4299-2170
authors: BH
authors: Kang
authors: School of Life Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.|Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors: Ding
authors: D
authors: Xue
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D053078:Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial / Q000187:drug effects; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology*; D063154:Mitochondrial Dynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D009840:Oligomycins / Q000494:pharmacology; D014475:Uncoupling Agents / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D009840:Oligomycins; D014475:Uncoupling Agents