Heteroplasmy between wild type mitochondrial DNA variants is detrimental and shorten life span
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ABSTRACT: We evaluated here the physiological consequences of the generation of heteroplasmic embryos by mix of two wild type mtDNAs in the same zygote. In this animal model, mtDNA heteroplasmy is actively combated during germ-line transmission, embryonic development and somatic life of most differentiated cells. mtDNA heteroplasmy alone, even when both mtDNA types are individually non-pathogenic, causes a disease affecting mainly those tissues that are not able to reduce their heteroplasmy: heart, lung and skeletal muscle.
Project description:Mitochondria generate signals of adaptation that regulate nuclear genes expression via retrograde signaling. But this phenomenon is complexified when qualitatively different mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coexist within cells. Although this cellular state of heteroplasmy leads to divergent phenotypes clinically, its consequences on cellular function and the cellular transcriptome are unknown. To interrogate this phenomenon, we generated somatic cell cybrids harboring increasing levels of a common mtDNA mutation (tRNALeu(UUR) 3243A>G) and mapped the resulting cellular phenotypes and transcriptional profiles across the complete range of heteroplasmy. Small increases in mutant mtDNAs caused relatively modest defect in mitochondrial oxidative capacity, but resulted in sharp transitions in mitochondrial ultrastructure and in the nuclear and mitochondrial transcriptomes, with the critical functional threshold corresponding to the induction of epigenetic regulatory systems. Principal component analysis underscores how each heteroplasmy level occupies a different "transcriptional space", with low levels heteroplasmy (20-30%) producing a dose-response linear progression in one direction, and mutationload of 50, 60 and 90% producing changes in the opposite direction. Hence, subtle changes in mitochondrial energetics can act through the epigenome to generate the phenotypes of the common “complex” diseases. Cells were generated by transferring the wildtype (3243A) and mutant (3243G) mtDNAs from a heteroplasmic 3243A>G patient’s lymphoblastoid cell line into 143B(TK-) mtDNA-deficient (ρo) cells and selected for transmitochondrial cybrids. Subsequent mtDNA depletion, reamplification, and cloning (Wiseman and Attardi, 1978) resulted in a series of stable cybrids harboring approximately 0, 20, 30, 50, 60, 90, and 100% 3243G mutant mtDNAs. Total RNA extracted from each cell line was then extracted, depleted of rRNA, and measured in sequenced in triplicates.
Project description:Background: Cell free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma has received increasing attention and has been studied in a broad range of clinical conditions implicating inflammation, cancer, and aging. However, few studies have focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the cell free form. This study characterized the size distribution and sequence characteristics of plasma cell free mtDNA (cf mtDNA) in humans.Methods and Results: We optimized DNA isolation and next-generation sequencing library preparation protocols to better retain short DNA fragments from plasma, and applied these optimized methods to plasma samples from patients with sepsis. After massive parallel sequencing, we verified that our methods can retain substantially shorter DNA fragments than the standard isolation method, resulting in an average of 11.5 fold increase in short DNA fragments yield (DNA < 100bp). We report that cf mtDNA in plasma is highly enriched in short-size cfDNA (30 ~ 60 bp), which is much shorter than the value previously reported (~140 bp). Motivated by this unique size distribution, we size-selected short cfDNA fragments from the sequencing library, which further increased the mtDNA recovery rate by an average of 10.4 fold. Using this approach we detected mixtures of different mtDNA sequences, termed heteroplasmy, in plasma from 3 patients. In one patient who previously received bone marrow transplantation, different minor allele frequencies were observed between plasma and white blood cells (WBC) at heteroplasmic mtDNA sites, consistent with mixed-tissue origin for plasma DNA.Conclusion: mtDNA in plasma exists as very short fragments that exhibit mtDNA heteroplasmy distribution differences from that found in a single organ/tissue. This study is the first report of genome wide identification of mtDNA heteroplasmy in human plasma. Our optimized method can be used to investigate the potential utility of cf mtDNA fragments and heteroplasmy as biomarkers in various diseases.
Project description:Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 3243A>G tRNALeu(UUR) heteroplasmic mutation (m.3243A>G) exhibits clinically heterogeneous phenotypes. While the high mtDNA heteroplasmy exceeding a critical threshold causes mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis with stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome, the low mtDNA heteroplasmy causes maternally inherited diabetes with or without deafness (MIDD) syndrome. How quantitative differences in mtDNA heteroplasmy produces distinct pathological states has remained elusive. Here we show that despite striking similarities in the energy metabolic gene expression signature, the mitochondrial bioenergetics, biogenesis and fuel catabolic functions are distinct in cells harboring low or high levels of the m.3243A>G mutation compared to wild type cells. We further demonstrate that the low heteroplasmic mutant cells exhibit a coordinate induction of transcriptional regulators of the mitochondrial biogenesis, glucose and fatty acid metabolism pathways that lack in near homoplasmic mutant cells compared to wild type cells. Altogether, these results shed new biological insights on the potential mechanisms by which low mtDNA heteroplasmy may progressively cause diabetes mellitus.
Project description:This study aimed to evaluate single nucleotide substitutions in mtDNA and analyze their correlation with inflammatory biomarkers in elderly COVID-19 patients. A total of 30 COVID-19 patients and 33 older adult controls (aged over 65 years) were enrolled. mtDNA was extracted from buffy coat samples and sequenced using a chip-based resequencing system (Affymetrix MitoChip v2.0) which detects both homoplasmic and heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations, and allows the assessment of low-level heteroplasmy. Serum concentration of IL-6, IFN-α, TNF-α and IL-10 were determined in patients by a high-sensitivity immunoassay. We found a higher burden of total heteroplasmic mutation in COVID-19 patients compared to controls with a selective increment in ND1 and COIII genes. Low-level heteroplasmy was significantly elevated in COVID-19 patients, especially in genes of the respiratory complex I. Both heteroplasmic mutation burden and low-level heteroplasmy were associated with increased levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-α.
Project description:Mitochondrial heteroplasmy, the presence of more than one mtDNA variant in a cell or individual is not as uncommon as previously thought. It is mostly due to the high mutation rate of the mtDNA and limited repair mechanisms present in the mitochondrion. The phenomenon has been studied mostly in human samples and in medical contexts. Heteroplasmy has also been researched in other species in fields such as forensics or genetic foot printing, but these studies usually focused on contained families within closely related species. Here we describe a large cross-species evaluation of heteroplasmy in mammals. We employed a novel approach to detect mitochondrial heteroplasmy in both novel and previously reported ChIP-sequencing datasets, which include concomitant mitochondrial DNA sequenced in the experiment. Here, we report novel ChIP-seq experiments for H3K4me1 and CEBPA across mammals, as well as some H3K4me3, H3K27ac and total histone H3 experiments. Most of the reported CEBPA experiments are good quality pull-downs, however the quality of many of the other experiments reported here has not been interrogated in detail. Whereas this does not affect the investigation of mitochondrial DNA pollution for the purposes of this study, both H3K4me1 and total histone H3 ChIP-seq datasets were often sequenced to relatively low depth and showed low ChIP enrichment compared to the other antibodies.
Project description:Mitochondria generate signals of adaptation that regulate nuclear genes expression via retrograde signaling. But this phenomenon is complexified when qualitatively different mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coexist within cells. Although this cellular state of heteroplasmy leads to divergent phenotypes clinically, its consequences on cellular function and the cellular transcriptome are unknown. To interrogate this phenomenon, we generated somatic cell cybrids harboring increasing levels of a common mtDNA mutation (tRNALeu(UUR) 3243A>G) and mapped the resulting cellular phenotypes and transcriptional profiles across the complete range of heteroplasmy. Small increases in mutant mtDNAs caused relatively modest defect in mitochondrial oxidative capacity, but resulted in sharp transitions in mitochondrial ultrastructure and in the nuclear and mitochondrial transcriptomes, with the critical functional threshold corresponding to the induction of epigenetic regulatory systems. Principal component analysis underscores how each heteroplasmy level occupies a different "transcriptional space", with low levels heteroplasmy (20-30%) producing a dose-response linear progression in one direction, and mutationload of 50, 60 and 90% producing changes in the opposite direction. Hence, subtle changes in mitochondrial energetics can act through the epigenome to generate the phenotypes of the common “complex” diseases.
Project description:BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial (mt) heteroplasmy can cause adverse biological consequences when deleterious mtDNA mutations accumulate disrupting ‘normal’ mt-driven processes and cellular functions. To investigate the heteroplasmy of such mtDNA changes we developed a moderate throughput mt isolation procedure to quantify the mt single-nucleotide variant (SNV) landscape in individual mouse neurons and astrocytes In this study we amplified mt-genomes from 1,645 single mitochondria (mts) isolated from mouse single astrocytes and neurons to 1. determine the distribution and proportion of mt-SNVs as well as mutation pattern in specific target regions across the mt-genome,2. assess differences in mtDNA SNVs between neurons and astrocytes, and 3. Study cosegregation of variants in the mouse mtDNA. RESULTS: 1. The data show that specific sites of the mt-genome are permissive to SNV presentation while others appear to be under stringent purifying selection. Nested hierarchical analysis at the levels of mitochondrion, cell, and mouse reveals distinct patterns of inter- and intra-cellular variation for mt-SNVs at different sites. 2. Further, differences in the SNV incidence were observed between mouse neurons and astrocytes for two mt-SNV 9027:G>A and 9419:C>T showing variation in the mutational propensity between these cell types. Purifying selection was observed in neurons as shown by the Ka/Ks statistic, suggesting that neurons are under stronger evolutionary constraint as compared to astrocytes. 3. Intriguingly, these data show strong linkage between the SNV sites at nucleotide positions 9027 and 9461. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that segregation as well as clonal expansion of mt-SNVs is specific to individual genomic loci, which is important foundational data in understanding of heteroplasmy and disease thresholds for mutation of pathogenic variants.
Project description:Mitochondria are vital due to their principal role in energy production via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS)1. Mitochondria carry their own genome (mtDNA) encoding critical genes involved in OXPHOS, therefore, mtDNA mutations cause fatal or severely debilitating disorders with limited treatment options. 2. Clinical manifestations of mtDNA disease vary based on mutation type and heteroplasmy levels i.e. presence of mutant and normal mtDNA within each cell. 3,4. We evaluated therapeutic concepts of generating genetically corrected pluripotent stem cells for patients with mtDNA mutations. We initially generated multiple iPS cell lines from a patient with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) caused by a heteroplasmic 3243A>G mutation and a patient with Leigh disease carrying a homoplasmic 8993T>G mutation (Leigh-iPS). Due to spontaneous mtDNA segregation in proliferating fibroblasts, isogenic MELAS iPS cell lines were recovered containing exclusively wild type (wt) mtDNA with normal metabolic function. As expected, all iPS cells from the patient with Leigh disease were affected. Using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT; Leigh-NT1), we then simultaneously replaced mutated mtDNA and generated pluripotent stem cells from the Leigh patient fibroblasts. In addition to reversing to a normal 8993G>T, oocyte derived donor mtDNA (human haplotype D4a) in Leigh-NT1 differed from the original haplotype (F1a) at a additional 47 nucleotide sites. Leigh-NT1 cells displayed normal metabolic function compared to impaired oxygen consumption and ATP production in Leigh-iPS cells or parental fibroblasts (Leigh-fib). We conclude that natural segregation of heteroplasmic mtDNA allows the generation of iPS cells with exclusively wild type mtDNA. Moreover, SCNT offers mitochondrial gene replacement strategy for patients with homoplasmic mtDNA disease.
Project description:Inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases transmit maternally and cause severe phenotypes. Since no effective treatment or genetic screening is available, nuclear genome transfer between patients’ and healthy eggs to replace mutant mtDNAs holds promises. Since polar body contains very few mitochondria and share same genomic material as oocyte, here we perform polar body transfer to prevent the transmission of inherited mtDNA variants. We compare the value of different germline genome transfer (spindle-chromosome, pronuclear, first and second polar body) in a mouse model. Reconstructed embryos support normal fertilization and produce live offspring. Strikingly, genetic analysis confirms F1 generation after polar body transfer possesses minimal donor mtDNA carry-over compared with spindle-chromosome (low/medium carry-over) and pronuclear (medium/high carry-over) transfer. Moreover, mtDNA genotype remains stable in F2 generation of progeny after polar body transfer. Our preclinical model demonstrates polar body transfer holds great potential in preventing the transmission of inherited mtDNA diseases. The objective of the present study was to detect genomic aberrations between PB1 and its counterpart, spindle-chromosome complex in human MII oocyte, PB2 and female pronucleus in human zygote at a single-cell level.
Project description:To address the question of whether mtDNA mutations might play a role in familiar ALS (fALS), mtDNA was isolated from whole blood (WB), white blood cells (WBC) and platelets (PLT) from fALS patients and the mitochondrial genome was analyzed using a mtDNA resequencing array (Affymetrix MitoChip v2.0) that allows detection of low-level heteroplasmy in addition to the conventional homoplasmic or heteroplasmic mutations. We distinguished between fALS cases with a prominent maternal (mat) inheritance pattern and fALS cases that do not point to a maternal inheritance pattern (non-mat). As additional controls we compared our results to healthy age and sex matched individuals without any known neurodegenerative background. With this we are aiming to get a deeper insight into a possible role of mtDNA alterations acting as a disease modifier in a subgroup of ALS patients presenting with a maternal transmission of the disease.