Mechanisms of mitochondrial inheritance and function in germline stem cells

Unique among organelles, mitochondria contain their own genomes, and are inherited maternally through mechanisms that are not well understood. Using Drosophila as a model, my research investigates the mechanisms of mitochondrial inheritance and the roles mitochondria play in germline development. First, we identify a mechanism that anchors mitochondria to the oocyte posterior—the site of primordial germ cell formation—ensuring mitochondria are passed on to subsequent generations. Second, through a transcriptome-wide in vivo RNAi screen, we show that the mitochondrial ATP synthase plays an unexpected, non-canonical role in early germline stem cell differentiation through inner mitochondrial membrane remodeling