Your cells inherit energy from their mother; The study provides knowledge about mitochondrial disorders

Your DNA is a mixture of your mother’s and father’s genes. However, when it comes to powering cells, recent research shows that the mother’s genes play a leading role.

Although people inherit genetic material from both parents, up-to-date research shows that mitochondria, the energy factories in cells, are a fascinating exception. test published in the journal Science Advances.

Scientists have discovered that humans inherit the DNA found in their mitochondria only from their mothers, and any traces of the father’s mitochondrial genome are destroyed when a sperm joins an egg. However, if this process fails, paternal mitochondria enter the developing embryo, causing lifelong neurological, behavioral and reproductive problems in adulthood. These findings were based on a study conducted on roundworms.

Scientists hope these findings will provide up-to-date insight into the development of mitochondrial disorders. Mitochondrial disorders are conditions that interfere with the body’s ability to produce energy and affect one in 5,000 people. The study also suggests a potential solution to preventing or treating these disorders with vitamin K2.

“These findings provide significant up-to-date insights into why paternal mitochondria must be rapidly eliminated early in development. They also provide up-to-date hope for treating human diseases that can occur when this process is disrupted,” senior author Ding Xue said in the paper press release.

To understand what happens when paternal mitochondria do not self-destruct, scientists conducted a study on C. elegans, diminutive, translucent worms. Although these worms had only 1,000 cells, they had a nervous system, intestines, muscles and other tissues similar to those of humans.

In the study, researchers tried to stop the process of paternal mitochondrial elimination (PME) in these worms and managed to delay it by about 10 hours. This delay resulted in a significant decrease in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an energy molecule that powers cellular functions. At the end of the study, the surviving worms experienced cognitive impairment, decreased activity, and reproductive difficulties.

However, when the researchers treated these worms with MK-4, a form of vitamin K2 known for its role in bone health, it restored ATP levels in the embryos to normal. This helped them with memory, activity and reproduction later in life.

Although more research is needed to confirm these findings, researchers hope that in the future, treating families with a history of mitochondrial disorders will be as elementary as taking vitamin K2 prenatally.