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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Time-lapse Microscopy of Early Embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: August 25, 2011
An intercellular heme-trafficking protein delivers maternal heme to the embryo during development in C. elegans
Caiyong Chen1, Tamika K Samuel, Jason Sinclair
1Department of Animal & Avian Sciences and Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Abstract:
Extracellular free heme can intercalate into membranes and promote damage to cellular macromolecules. Thus it is likely that specific intercellular pathways exist for the directed transport, trafficking, and delivery of heme to cellular destinations, although none have been found to date. Here we show that Caenorhabditis elegans HRG-3 is required for the delivery of maternal heme to developing embryos. HRG-3 binds heme and is exclusively secreted by maternal intestinal cells into the interstitial fluid for transport of heme to extraintestinal cells, including oocytes. HRG-3 deficiency results either in death during embryogenesis or in developmental arrest immediately post-hatching-phenotypes that are fully suppressed by maternal but not zygotic hrg-3 expression. Our results establish a role for HRG-3 as an intercellular heme-trafficking protein.
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