sonsi2018 How Mitochondrial Disease ls Passed Down From Mother To Child: Predicting Severity ~ ScienceDaily
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How Mitochondrial Disease Is Passed Down From Mother To
Child: Predicting Severity
Date: January 31, 2008
Source: Virginia Tech
‘Summary: Scientists have shown for the first time how a particular family of diseases are passed down from
mother to child and how this can lead to the severity of the disease differing widely. The research
offers new hope of being able to predict a child's risk of developing a mitochondrial disease which
can cause muscle weakness, diabetes, strokes, heart failure and epilepsy.
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FULL STORY
A team of researchers in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has
revealed how mitochondrial diseases are passed from the mother to the next generation
in a mouse model system. The study, which was published on-line in Nature Genetics",
shows for the first time how mitochondrial diseases that cause muscle weakness,
diabetes, stroke, heart failure and epilepsy are passed from mother to offspring
Mitochondria are the “engines” present in each coll that produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the key energy
currency that drives metabolism. Mitochondria also have their own DNA (mitochondrial or mtONA) that encodes a
‘small but essential number of proteins required for energy production in cells. Mitochondria, and the mtDNA that,
they contain, are inherited solely from the mother, as the paternal mtDNA present in the sperm are destroyed after
the egg is fertlized. In almost all diseases caused by mutant mtDNA, the patient's cells will contain a mixture of
mutant and normal m{ONA. The proportion of mutant m{DNA in most cases determines the severity of the disease.
Defective mitochondria cause most damage in muscles, nerves and the brain, the parts of the body which
consume the most energy.
The inheritance of these diseases does not follow the rules of Mendelian genetics. Instead, there are large random
shifts at the mtONA mutation level between mother and offspring. This study explains how these large random
shifts occur within the first three weeks of embryo formation, through the combined use of computational modeling
and a mouse model system.
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Dr. David Samuels, assistant professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI), commented: "The
computational model used in this investigation simulates the biological process directly and allows scientists to
examine the early stages of embryo formation and development. Clinicians can therefore take a close look at the
replication of mitochondrial DNA and the dynamics of cell division in mouse embryos before and after implantation
in the uterus." He added: "Computational modeling and cutting-edge lab work were both essential for this study.
The experiments gave us new information that we had to have to build the simulation, and the simulation was used
as a tool to analyze the data from the experiment."
Dr. Patrick Chinnery, Wellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science and professor of neurogenetics at the University
of Newcastle in the United Kingdom, remarked: "Mitochondrial disease can have devastating effects on a family,
and the chance of having affected children is a cause of major stress. By defining the main biological mechanism,
we hope in the long term to develop counseling guidelines that will help patients and their families make more
informed decisions."
The computational model reveals how mtDNA is divided into different embryonic cells before and after
implantation and how the replicating mtDNA molecules are subsequently separated between the dividing germ
cells that make up the embryo. The model accounts for the marked reduction in the number of mtDNA molecules
that are transmitted from mother to offspring, the so-called "mitochondrial genetic bottleneck." Its thought that this
genetic bottleneck has evolved over time to remove deleterious mitochondrial mutations from the population
These mutations are either lost during transmission or, if transferred, give rise to offspring with a low chance of
survival
A.woman's eggs are formed at a very early stage in her development. As a precursor cell divides into a number of
eggs, so the mitochondria from that cell are distributed randomly throughout these eggs. Hence different eggs can
contain very different amounts of mutant mtDNA, which determine the amount of mutant genetic material that is
passed on to the next generation, This difference is thought to explain the variation in the severity of the disease
between siblings however the mechanism responsible for this variation was not understood for many years.
“In essence, its a game of chance," explains Professor Chinnery. "If you have a mixture of red and white balls and
pick handfuls at random, then some of those handfuls will contain very few red balls and other very few white
ones. We have shown this is the reason for the different amounts of mutant mtDNA in different eggs.”
Although the current study investigates the transmission of mitochondrial DNA in mice, the computational model is
also applicable to human data. Mitochondrial diseases are thought to affect as many as one person in 000. The
research offers the hope that clinicians will be able to predict a child's risk of developing maternally inherited
mitochondrial diseases that cause muscle weakness, diabetes, stroke, heart failure and epilepsy.
* Journal reference: Lynsey M Cree, David C Samuels, Susana Chuva de Sousa Lopes, Harsha Karur Rajasimha,
Passom Wonnapinij, Jeffrey R Mann, Hans-Henrik M Dahl, Patrick F Chinnery (2008) "A reduction of
mitochondrial DNA molecules during embryogenesis explains the rapid segregation of genotypes,” Nature
Genetics, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng,2007.63.
This research is supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Thailand Higher Education Strategic Scholarship for
Frontier Research Network.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Virginia Tech. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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