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Non-Random mtDNA Segregation Patterns Indicate a Metastable Heteroplasmic Segregation Unit in m.3243A > G Cybrid Cells

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Angela Pyle, Professor Patrick Chinnery

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Abstract

Many pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutations are heteroplasmic, with a mixture of mutated and wild-type mtDNA present within individual cells. The severity and extent of the clinical phenotype is largely due to the distribution of mutated molecules between cells in different tissues, but mechanisms underpinning segregation are not fully understood. To facilitate mtDNA segregation studies we developed assays that measure m.3243A>G point mutation loads directly in hundreds of individual cells to determine the mechanisms of segregation over time. In the first study of this size, we observed a number of discrete shifts in cellular heteroplasmy between periods of stable heteroplasmy. The observed patterns could not be parsimoniously explained by random mitotic drift of individual mtDNAs. Instead, a genetically metastable, heteroplasmic mtDNA segregation unit provides the likely explanation, where stable heteroplasmy is maintained through the faithful replication of segregating units with a fixed wild-type/m.3243A>G mutant ratio, and shifts occur through the temporary disruption and re-organization of the segregation units. While the nature of the physical equivalent of the segregation unit remains uncertain, the factors regulating its organization are of major importance for the pathogenesis of mtDNA diseases.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Raap AK, Tafrechi RSJ, van de Rijke FM, Pyle A, Wahlby C, Szuhai K, Ravelli RBG, de Coo RFM, Rajasimha HK, Nilsson M, Chinnery PF, Samuels DC, Janssen GMC

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: PLoS One

Year: 2012

Volume: 7

Issue: 12

Print publication date: 18/12/2012

Date deposited: 27/02/2013

ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203

Publisher: Public Library of Science

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052080

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052080


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
096919Wellcome Trust

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