News Release

Spontaneous transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genomes in the human brain over the individual’s lifespan

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Spontaneous transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genomes in the human brain over the individual’s lifespan

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On Expression Patterns and Developmental Origin of Human Brain Regions.

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Credit: Lior Kirsch, 2016, PLOS Computational Biology, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA (Numt) insertions are mito-nuclear gene transfer events that can arise in the germline and in cancer. This study shows that Numt insertions arise spontaneously and accumulate in brain tissues during development or over the human lifespan.

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In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology:   http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002723

Article Title: Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts

Author Countries: United States

Funding: see manuscript


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