Clonal Mosaicism of Mitochondrial DNA Heteroplasmy as a Molecular Clock of Aging.

Abstract excerpt

The accumulation of somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations across life is among the oldest and most debated proposed drivers of aging. A defining, counter-intuitive feature is that individual mutant molecules, although vanishingly rare when they arise, can come to dominate a cell's multi-copy mtDNA population through intracellular clonal expansion, producing a mosaic of respiratory-deficient cells across...

Topics

• DNA, Mitochondrial
• Mosaicism
• Aging
• Animals
• Humans
• Heteroplasmy
• Mutation