Figure 4.

Allophagy of paternal mitochondria and MOs in C. elegans embryos. In C. elegans embryos, sperm-derived paternal mitochondria and membranous organelles (MOs) are degraded by selective autophagy called allophagy. Paternal mitochondria seem to be denatured after fertilization and are ubiquitinated at a low level. An autophagy adaptor, ALLO-1 and its binding partner IKKE-1, localize to the paternal mitochondria and recruit the autophagy factor LGG-1 for the formation of autophagy. IKKE-1 is a kinase that phosphorylates ALLO-1. MOs are heavily ubiquitinated and eliminated by allophagy in the same manner.