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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Robert Taylor, Gordon Taylor, Dr Steve Durham, Emeritus Professor Doug Turnbull
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Studies of single cells have previously shown intracellular clonal expansion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations to levels that can cause a focal cytochrome c oxidase (COX) defect. Whilst techniques are available to study mtDNA rearrangements at the level of the single cell, recent interest has focused on the possible role of somatic mtDNA point mutations in ageing, neurodegenerative disease and cancer. We have therefore developed a method that permits the reliable determination of the entire mtDNA sequence from single cells without amplifying contaminating, nuclear-embedded pseudogenes. Sequencing and PCR-RFLP analyses of individual COX-negative muscle fibres from a patient with a previously described heteroplasmic COX II (T7587C) mutation indicate that mutant loads as low as 30% can be reliably detected by sequencing. This technique will be particularly useful In identifying the mtDNA mutational spectra in age-related COX-negative cells and will increase our understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms by which they occur.
Author(s): Taylor RW; Durham SE; Turnbull DM; Taylor GA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nucleic Acids Research
Year: 2001
Volume: 29
Issue: 15
ISSN (print): 0305-1048
ISSN (electronic): 1362-4962
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/15/e74.short
