Shaping the maternal inheritance by the cytoskeleton

Sumury : Living organisms use and transform the energy present in their environment to fuel their growth, development, and evolution. For example, when a person dances, energy consumption occurs through a complex, multiscale process—from ATP production in mitochondrial muscle cells to muscle fiber contractions driven by acto-myosin interactions, ultimately resulting in limb movement. Our research has shown that acto-myosin interactions also play a key role in shaping oocyte maternal inheritance by enabling energy transfer across scales.

With global fertility rates declining, many couples are increasingly turning toward assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to conceive. Organisms that reproduce sexually typically originate from the fusion of two gametes—an oocyte and a sperm. While the sperm primarily transmits its haploid genome, the oocyte contributes both a haploid set of chromosomes and a large cytoplasmic inheritance to the offspring. This maternal inheritance includes chromosomes, organelles, lipids, metabolites, proteins, and RNAs.

In this talk, I explored the impact of energy transfer, driven by different modes of acto-myosin contractions, on the formation and preservation of the maternal inheritance, as well as the potential consequences when these processes are disrupted. I also discussed the evolutionary conservation of these mechanisms across species.