Bivalve mollusks display one of the most intriguing exceptions to strict maternal inheritance of mitochondria in the animal kingdom. In many bivalves, a system known as doubly uniparental inheritance ...

In most eukaryotes, the inheritance of mitochondrion and its DNA (mtDNA) is strictly maternal, despite the fact that a spermatozoon can inject up to 100 functional mitochondria into the oocyte during ...

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and the University of Oxford have found that a cellular housekeeping function called autophagy—by which cell components are broken down and recycled—plays a ...

In most plants and animals, including humans, mitochondria are inherited exclusively, or nearly exclusively, from the mother. By contrast, paternal transmission is observed only occasionally, and the ...

Researchers have identified a physical process called “mitochondrial pearling” that explains how cells keep their mitochondrial DNA evenly spaced and ready for inheritance during division. The finding ...