Mechanisms of mitochondrial DNA damage
Human mitochondrial DNA is a 16569 nucleotide double-stranded circular molecule which encodes proteins and structural RNAs such as tRNA.
Several features of the mitochondrial genome make it less stable:
- the absence of introns hance a mutation is more likely to occur in a functionally significant area
- the absence of protective histones
- the absence of a DNA repair system
- the high concentration of oxygen free radicals
- mitochondrial DNA does not recombine and so mutations accumulate along a maternal inheritance
The mutation rate of mitochondrial DNA is 10 times greater than nuclear DNA.
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