An Intercellular Heme-Trafficking Protein Delivers Maternal Heme to the Embryo during Development in C. elegans

SummaryExtracellular free heme can intercalate into membranes and promote damage to cellular macromolecules. Thus it is likely that specific intercellular pathways exist for the directed transport, trafficking, and delivery of heme to cellular destinations, although none have been found to date. Here we show that Caenorhabditis elegans HRG-3 is required for the delivery of maternal heme to developing embryos. HRG-3 binds heme and is exclusively secreted by maternal intestinal cells into the interstitial fluid for transport of heme to extraintestinal cells, including oocytes. HRG-3 deficiency results either in death during embryogenesis or in developmental arrest immediately post-hatching—phenotypes that are fully suppressed by maternal but not zygotic hrg-3 expression. Our results establish a role for HRG-3 as an intercellular heme-trafficking protein.

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► Embryonic development in C. elegans depends on maternal heme acquisition
► The maternal intestine secretes HRG-3 into the interstitial fluid
► HRG-3 binds maternal heme and delivers it to extraintestinal cells and oocytes
► Maternal but not zygotic HRG-3 rescues embryonic lethality of HRG-3 deficiency