Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Mitochondria fulfill diverse, essential cellular functions and the mechanisms ensuring their fitness are central to health and metabolism. They are best known as the energy generators of the cell but also have the potential to produce harmful molecules. Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with aging and a number of human diseases. My research will examine the mitochondria of germ cells, a type of stem cell with significant importance to animal development. Germ cells possess the potential to form any cell in the body and maintain a continuous link between generations by giving rise to gametes such as oocytes and sperm. As a part of their unique role in development, germ cells are thought to resist, or repair, age-related damage observed in other cell types. I will study differences in the composition of germ cell mitochondria that are not found in any other adult cells. I hypothesize that these distinctions underlie functional differences between germ cells other adult cells that deteriorate with age. I will utilize the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans, which has been an important system for studying both the molecular basis of aging and mechanisms that specify germ cell identity. I will determine the point in development when differences in germ cell mitochondria arise, the importance of these differences in germ cell function and whether producing germ cell-like mitochondria in other cell types can inhibit age-related decline. These aims will uncover fundamental aspects of mitochondrial function during development and may reveal avenues through which the mechanisms that allow germ cells to avoid certain forms of damage could be applied to other cell types.