In this week's issue of Science, Miyuki Sato and Ken Sato from Gunma University in Japan report that autophagy is necessary for the removal of the paternal mitochondria genome in C. elegans. "Autophagosomes engulf paternal mitochondria, resulting in their lysosomal degradation during early embryogenesis," Sato and Sato write, adding that that gives rise to the maternal inheritance of mitochondria.