Incompatibility between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes during oogenesis results in ovarian failure and embryonic lethality.

Mitochondrial dysfunction can cause female infertility. An important unresolved issue is the extent to which incompatibility between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes contributes to female infertility. It has previously been shown that a mitochondrial haplotype from ( ) is incompatible with a nuclear genome from the strain (), resulting in impaired development, which was enhanced at higher temperature. This mito-nuclear incompatibility is between alleles of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial () and the mitochondrial-encoded that it aminoacylates. Here, we show that this mito-nuclear incompatibility causes a severe temperature-sensitive female infertility. The nuclear genome contributed to death of ovarian germline stem cells and reduced egg production, which was further enhanced by the incompatibility with  mitochondria. Mito-nuclear incompatibility also resulted in aberrant egg morphology and a maternal-effect on embryonic chromosome segregation and survival, which was completely dependent on the temperature and mito-nuclear genotype of the mother. Our findings show that maternal mito-nuclear incompatibility during oogenesis has severe consequences for egg production and embryonic survival, with important broader relevance to human female infertility and mitochondrial replacement therapy.