Autophagy-regulated mitochondrial inheritance controls early CD8⁺ T cell fate commitment.

ABSTRACT: T cell immunity deteriorates with age, accompanied by a decline in autophagy and asymmetric cell division. Here we show that autophagy regulates mitochondrial inheritance in CD8⁺ T cells. Using a mouse model that enables sequential tagging of mitochondria in mother and daughter cells, we demonstrate that autophagy-deficient T cells fail to clear premitotic old mitochondria and inherit them symmetrically. By contrast, autophagy-competent cells that partition mitochondria asymmetrically produce daughter cells with distinct fates: those retaining old mitochondria exhibit reduced memory potential, whereas those that have not inherited old mitochondria and exhibit higher mitochondrial turnover are long-lived and expand upon cognate-antigen challenge. Multiomics analyses suggest that

SUBMITTER: Borsa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12807857 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature