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Mitochondrial endonuclease G mediates breakdown of paternal mitochondria upon fertilization.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondria are inherited maternally in most animals, but the mechanisms of selective paternal mitochondrial elimination (PME) are unknown. While examining fertilization in Caenorhabditis elegans, we observed that paternal mitochondria rapidly lose their inner membrane integrity. CPS-6, a mitochondrial endonuclease G, serves as a paternal mitochondrial factor that is critical for PME. We found that CPS-6 relocates from the intermembrane space of paternal mitochondria to the matrix after fertilization to degrade mitochondrial DNA. It acts with maternal autophagy and proteasome machineries to promote PME. Loss of cps-6 delays breakdown of mitochondrial inner membranes, autophagosome enclosure of paternal mitochondria, and PME. Delayed removal of paternal mitochondria causes increased embryonic lethality, demonstrating that PME is important for normal animal development. Thus, CPS-6 functions as a paternal mitochondrial degradation factor during animal development.

SUBMITTER: Zhou Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5469823 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mitochondrial endonuclease G mediates breakdown of paternal mitochondria upon fertilization.

Zhou Qinghua Q Li Haimin H Li Hanzeng H Nakagawa Akihisa A Lin Jason L J JL Lee Eui-Seung ES Harry Brian L BL Skeen-Gaar Riley Robert RR Suehiro Yuji Y William Donna D Mitani Shohei S Yuan Hanna S HS Kang Byung-Ho BH Xue Ding D

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20160623 6297

Mitochondria are inherited maternally in most animals, but the mechanisms of selective paternal mitochondrial elimination (PME) are unknown. While examining fertilization in Caenorhabditis elegans, we observed that paternal mitochondria rapidly lose their inner membrane integrity. CPS-6, a mitochondrial endonuclease G, serves as a paternal mitochondrial factor that is critical for PME. We found that CPS-6 relocates from the intermembrane space of paternal mitochondria to the matrix after fertili ...[more]

PMID: 27338704

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Project description:Parental exposure to environmental stress can result in an increased diseases risk in the offspring. Although literature on maternal contribution to hereditary diseases are growing, the paternal contribution is frequently underrecognized. Since human studies reported that 80% of transmitted mutations arise in the paternal germline, it is crucial to understand the mechanism underlying the paternally inherited genome instability. Ionizing radiation (IR) is a major source of mutagenesis through inducing DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here, we used sex-separated C. elegans mutants to investigate the paternal contribution to IR-induced transgenerational effects. Specifically, we found that paternal exposure to IR leads to a transgenerational embryonic lethality, and this effect is only observed when the radiation exposure occurred close to the time of fertilization. In the offspring of the irradiated males (F1 generation), we detected various genome instability phenotypes, including DNA fragmentation, chromosomal rearrangement, and aneuploidy. These phenotypes are attributed to the usage of two error-prone repair machinery, the polymerase-theta mediated end joining (TMEJ) and the non-homologous End Joining (NHEJ). Surprisingly, depletion of a human histone H1.0 ortholog, HIS-24, can significantly rescue this transgenerational embryonic lethality. Moreover, this rescue effect is associated with the downregulation of heterochromatin marker histone 3 lysine 9 di-methylation (H3K9me2), and the knocking-down of heterochromatin protein, HPL-1, could mimic the rescue effect of HIS-24 depletion. We also noticed that removal of the histone H1 and heterochromatin marker could activate the error-free repair machinery, Homologous Recombination repair (HR), thus improving the viability of the offspring carrying paternally inherited DNA damage. Altogether, our work sheds light on the importance of paternal radiation exposure on the health of offspring. In addition, our work establishes a previously unknown mechanism underlying the transgenerational genome instability and provides a potential therapeutic target for preventing the hereditary diseases caused by paternal radiation exposure.

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Mitochondrial endonuclease G mediates breakdown of paternal mitochondria upon fertilization.

Publications

Mitochondrial endonuclease G mediates breakdown of paternal mitochondria upon fertilization.

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