Fig. 3: Activation of AMPK in the early life of offspring drives the rejuvenation of inherited aberrant mitochondria.

a Western blot analysis of AAK-2 phosphorylation levels in OD2 animals and OD5 animals in the embryonic, larval 2 (L2), L4 and adult stages. Representative immunoblots are displayed in the upper panel, and the quantification results are shown with bar plots in the lower panel. Dots in the bar plot represent biological replicates. b Confocal images (left) and the quantified ratios (right) of mitochondria stained by CNB in aak-2(ok524) mutant offspring (OD2 and OD5) in the embryonic, L2 or L4 stage. The scale bars represent 5 μm. White arrows indicate donut-shaped mitochondria, and yellow arrow indicate fragmented mitochondria. c Quantified ratios of mitochondria stained by CNB in WT OD5 animals in the L2 stage. The scale bar represents 5 μm. The percentage of worms with abnormal mitochondria is shown in the right bar plot. d Model of the mitochondria-AMPK interplay mediating the shaping of offspring adult size by the MAE. The data are presented as the means ± SEM with bar plots in a. The bar plots (a) were analyzed by unpaired t-test. Biological replicates: 3 (a).