Reproductive organs and developing tissues have high energy demands that require metabolic functions primarily supported by mitochondria function. The highly conserved CISD/NEET iron-sulfur (Fe-S) protein family regulates iron and reactive oxygen homeostasis, both of which are important for mitochondrial function. Disruption of iron and reactive oxygen homeostasis typically leads to detrimental effects. In humans, CISD dysfunction is associated with human health issues including Wolfram syndrome 2. Using C. elegans, we previously determined that the
cisd-1,
cisd-3.1 and
cisd-3.2 have an overlapping role in the regulation of physiological germline apoptosis through the canonical programmed cell death pathway. Here, we isolated the
cisd-3.2(pnIs68) mutant that resulted in physiological and fitness defects including germline abnormalities that are associated with abnormal stem cell niche and disrupted formation of bivalent chromosomes. The
cisd-3.2(pnIs68) mutation led to complete disruption of the
cisd-3.2 gene expression and a decrease in expression of genetically intact
cisd-1 and
cisd-3.1 genes suggesting an indirect impact of the
cisd-3.2(pnIs68) allele. The CISD-3.2 and CISD-3.1 proteins localize to the mitochondria in many tissues throughout development. The
cisd-3.2(pnIs68) mutant displays phenotypes associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including disruption of the mitochondrial network within the germline. These results further support the idea that the CISD protein family is required for mitochondrial function that supports important functions in animals including overall fitness and germline viability.