Loss of the antioxidant enzyme CuZnSOD (Sod1) mimics an age-related increase in absolute mitochondrial DNA copy number in the skeletal muscle.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondria contain multiple copies of the circular mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) that encodes ribosomal RNAs and proteins locally translated for oxidative phosphorylation. Loss of mtDNA integrity, both altered copy number and increased mutations, is implicated in cellular dysfunction with aging. Published data on mtDNA copy number and aging is discordant which may be due to methodological limitations for quantifying mtDNA copy number. Existing quantitative PCR (qPCR) mtDNA copy number quantification methods provide only relative abundances and are problematic to normalize to different template input amounts and across tissues/sample types. As well, existing methods cannot quantify mtDNA copy number in subcellular isolates, such as isolated mitochondria and neuronal synaptic terminals, whi

SUBMITTER: Masser DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5061674 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature