Grant: Project Grant

Mitochondria are essential metabolic hubs in our cells, which we inherit strictly from our mothers. Given the fundamental importance of mitochondria, mothers have evolved mechanisms to ensure they pass good, functional mitochondria to their offspring. Without such mechanisms, we would not exist. We have discovered a novel mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) degradation pathway that acts within ovaries to ensure healthy mitochondria are transmitted from mother to offspring. The focus of this proposal is to elucidate the mechanism of this mtDNA degradation pathway. Doing so will have broad-ranging impacts on our understanding of mitochondrial inheritance and diseases, which can be caused by defects in mtDNA quality control.