Muscle-derived exophers promote reproductive fitness

Using Caenorhabditis elegans, we discovered that large extracellular vesicles (known as exophers) previously found to remove damaged subcellular elements in neurons and cardiomyocytes are released by body wall muscles (BWM) to support embryonic growth. Exopher formation (exopheresis) by BWM is sex-specific and a non-cell autonomous process regulated by developing embryos in the uterus. Embryo-derived factors induce the production of exophers that transport yolk proteins produced in the BWM and ultimately deliver them to newly formed oocytes. Consequently, the offspring of mothers with a high number of muscle-derived exophers grew faster. The deposited data were used to generate all the figures in the publication, including microscopic images, measurements of the amount of exopher in response to genetic modifications or measurements of animal motility.