Autophagosomal Sperm Organelle Clearance and mtDNA Inheritance in C. elegans

The nematode C. elegans represents a powerful experimental system with key properties and advantages to study the mechanisms underlying mitochondrial DNA maternal inheritance and paternal components sorting. First, the transmission is uniparental and maternal as in many animal species; second, at fertilization sperm cells contain both mitochondria and mtDNA; and third, the worm allows powerful genetics and cell biology approaches to characterize the mechanisms underlying the uniparental and maternal transmission of mtDNA. Fertilization of C. elegans oocyte occurs inside the transparent body when the mature oocyte resumes meiosis I and passes through the spermatheca. One amoeboid sperm cell fuses with the oocyte and delivers its whole content. Among the structures entering the embryo, the sperm mitochondria and a fraction of the nematode-specific membranous organelles are rapidly degraded, whereas others like centrioles and sperm genomic DNA are transmitted. In this chapter, we will review the knowledge acquired on sperm inherited organelles clearance during the recent years using C. elegans.