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Updated: May 15, 2026

Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization
Published on: June 17, 2025
Mitochondria, maternal inheritance, and asymmetric fitness: why males die younger
Jonci N Wolff1, Neil J Gemmell
1School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Abstract:
Mitochondrial function is achieved through the cooperative interaction of two genomes: one nuclear (nuDNA) and the other mitochondrial (mtDNA). The unusual transmission of mtDNA, predominantly maternal without recombination is predicted to affect the fitness of male offspring. Recent research suggests the strong sexual dimorphism in aging is one such fitness consequence. The uniparental inheritance of mtDNA results in a selection asymmetry; mutations that affect only males will not respond to natural selection, imposing a male-specific mitochondrial mutation load. Prior work has implicated this male-specific mutation load in disease and infertility, but new data from fruit flies suggests a prominent role for mtDNA in aging; across many taxa males almost invariably live shorter lives than females. Here we discuss this new work and identify some areas of future research that might now be encouraged to explore what may be the underpinning cause of the strong sexual dimorphism in aging.
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