Segregation of mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy through a developmental genetic bottleneck in human embryos

Publication: Nature Cell Biology

Vasileios I. Floros, Angela Pyle, Sabine Dietmann, Wei Wei, Walfred W. C. Tang, Naoko Irie, Brendan Payne, Antonio Capalbo, Laila Noli, Jonathan Coxhead, Gavin Hudson, Moira Crosier, Henrik Strahl, Yacoub Khalaf, Mitinori Saitou, Dusko Ilic, M. Azim Surani & Patrick F. Chinnery

15 January 2018


Summary:

Researchers have shown for the first time how children can inherit a severe – potentially fatal – mitochondrial disease from a healthy mother. The study reveals that healthy people harbour mutations in their mitochondrial DNA and explains how cases of severe mitochondrial disease can appear unexpectedly in previously unaffected families.

Mitochondrial diseases caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA are rare, affecting approximately 1 in 10,000 births, but can cause severe conditions. Mitochondria are the powerhouses inside our cells, producing energy and carrying their own DNA instructions (separate from the DNA in the nucleus of every cell) and are inherited from a person’s mother via the egg.

In this study, the researchers found that a variety of mutations were present in the mitochondrial DNA in the developing egg cells of all 12 of the human embryos studied, showing that low levels of mitochondrial DNA mutations are carried by healthy humans.

View publication

© Copyright - NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre 2025