A sperm that fertilizes an egg carries its mitochondria into the egg’s cytoplasm

Question

A sperm that fertilizes an egg carries its mitochondria into the egg’s cytoplasm. However, male-derived mitochondrial nucleoids have completely disappeared within 60 min after fertilization. This experimental observation is most likely due to ________________.

a) The “bottle-neck” inheritance of mitochondria.

b) The degradation of mitochondrial proteins.

c) The degradation of mitochondrial DNA.

d) The dilution of male-derived mitochondria in the egg’s cytoplasm.

e) The incompatibility of male and female mitochondria.

I chose answer c) The degradation of mitochondrial DNA but my TA told me that the answer was wrong. Was I wrong or was the TA wrong and my answer was actually right? Please explain the answer to me so that I can understand the concept and definitively know what the correct answer is.

Explanation / Answer

No , the correct answer is option C itself . The reason why male mitochondrial inheritance is not seen is that there occurs ubiquitin proteasomal degradation of the mitochondrial DNA.

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