Biology subjects

Kunz, W.

Publications and source records attributed to Kunz, W..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Unravelling the Mitochondrial Mutational Landscape in Chordates: damage-induced versus replication-induced signatures, their Etiologies, and dynamics

To elucidate the primary factors shaping mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutagenesis, we derived a comprehensive 192-component mtDNA mutational spectrum using 86,149 polymorphic synonymous mutations reconstructed from the CytB gene of 967 chordate species. The mtDNA spectrum analysis provided numerous findings on repair and mutation processes, breaking it down into three main signatures: (i) symmetrical, evenly distributed across both strands, mutations, induced by gamma DNA polymerase (about 50% of all mutations); (ii) asymmetrical, heavy-strand-specific, C>T mutations (about 30%); and (iii) asymmetrical, heavy-strand-specific A>G mutations, influenced by metabolic and age-specific factors (about 20%). We propose that both asymmetrical signatures are driven by single-strand specific damage coupled with inefficient base excision repair on the lagging (heavy) strand of mtDNA. Understanding the detailed mechanisms of this damage is crucial for developing strategies to reduce somatic mtDNA mutational load, which is vital for combating age-related diseases.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2021

Mitochondrial mutational spectrum is associated with mammalian longevity: a novel signature of oxidative damage.

The mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) does not resemble any of the known mutational signatures of the nuclear genome and variation in mtDNA mutational spectra between different organisms is still incomprehensible. Since mitochondria is tightly involved in aerobic energy production, it is expected that mtDNA mutational spectra is affected by the oxidative damage. Assuming that oxidative damage increases with age, we analyze mtDNA mutagenesis of different species. Analysing (i) dozens thousands of somatic mtDNA mutations in samples of different age (ii) 70053 polymorphic synonymous mtDNA substitutions, reconstructed in 424 mammalian species with different generation length and (iii) synonymous nucleotide content of 650 complete mitochondrial genomes of mammalian species we observed that the frequency of AH>GH substitutions (H - heavy chain notation) is twice higher in species with high versus low generation length making their mtDNA more AH poor and GH rich. Considering that AH>GH substitutions are also sensitive to the time spent single stranded (TSSS) during asynchroniuos mtDNA replication we demonstrated that AH>GH substitution rate is a function of both species-specific generation length and position specific TSSS. We propose that AH>GH is a mitochondria-specific signature of oxidative damage associated with both aging and TSSS.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

A mitochondrial mutational signature of temperature and longevity in ectothermic and endothermic vertebrates.

The variation in the mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) among species is not well understood. Recently, we demonstrated an increase in A>G substitutions on a heavy chain (hereafter AH>GH) of mtDNA in aged mammals, interpreting it as a hallmark of age-related oxidative damage. In this study, we hypothesized that the occurrence of AH>GH substitutions may depend on the level of aerobic metabolism, which can be inferred from an organisms body temperature. To test this hypothesis, we used body temperature in endotherms and environmental temperature in ectotherms as proxies for metabolic rate and reconstructed mtDNA mutational spectra for 1350 vertebrate species. Our results showed that temperature was associated with increased rates of AH>GH and asymmetry of AH>GH in different species of ray-finned fishes and within geographically distinct clades of European anchovy. Analysis of nucleotide composition in the most neutral synonymous sites of fishes revealed that warm-water species were expectedly more A-poor and G-rich compared to cold-water species. Finally, we extended our analyses to all vertebrates and observed higher AH>GH and increased asymmetry of AH>GH in warm-blooded (mammals and birds) compared to cold-blooded (Actinopterygii, amphibia, reptilia) vertebrate classes. Overall, our findings suggest that temperature, through its influence on metabolism and oxidative damage, shapes the mutational properties and nucleotide content of the mtDNA in all vertebrates.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Quasi-Mendelian Paternal Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA: A notorious artifact, or anticipated mtDNA behavior?

A recent report by Luo et al (2018) in PNAS (DOI:10.1073/pnas.1810946115) presented evidence of biparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA. The pattern of inheritance, however, resembled that of a nuclear gene. The authors explained this peculiarity with Mendelian segregation of a faulty gatekeeper gene that permits survival of paternal mtDNA in the oocyte. Three other groups (Vissing, 2019; Lutz-Bonengel and Parson, 2019; Salas et al, 2019), however, posited the observation was an artifact of inheritance of mtDNA nuclear pseudogenes (NUMTs), present in the fathers nuclear genome. We present justification that both interpretations are incorrect, but that the original authors did, in fact, observe biparental inheritance of mtDNA. Our alternative model assumes that because of initially low paternal mtDNA copy number these copies are randomly partitioned into nascent cell lineages. The paternal mtDNA haplotype must have a selective advantage, so seeded cells will tend to proceed to fixation of the paternal haplotype in the course of development. We use modeling to emulate the dynamics of paternal genomes and predict their mode of inheritance and distribution in somatic tissue. The resulting offspring is a mosaic of cells that are purely maternal or purely paternal - including in the germline. This mosaicism explains the quasi-Mendelian segregation of the paternal mDNA. Our model is based on known aspects of mtDNA biology and explains all of the experimental observations outlined in Luo et. al., including maternal inheritance of the grand-paternal mtDNA.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2019

Deleterious in late life mitochondrial alleles and aging: secrets of Japanese centenarians

Aging in postmitotic tissues is associated with clonal expansion of somatic mitochondrial deletions, the origin of which is not well understood. Deletions in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are often flanked by direct nucleotide repeats, but this alone does not fully explain their distribution. Here, we hypothesized that the close proximity of direct repeats on single-stranded DNA might play a role in the formation of deletions. By analyzing human mtDNA deletions in the major arc of mtDNA, which is single-stranded during replication and is characterized by a high number of deletions, we found a non-uniform distribution with a "hot spot" where one deletion breakpoint occurred within the region of 6-9kb and another within 13-16kb of the mtDNA. This distribution was not explained by the presence of direct repeats, suggesting that other factors, such as the spatial proximity of these two regions can be the cause. In silico analyses revealed that the single-stranded major arc may be organized as a large-scale hairpin-like loop with a center close to 11kb and contacting regions between 6-9 kb and 13-16 kb, which would explain the high deletion activity in this contact zone. The direct repeats located within the contact zone, such as the well-known common repeat with a first arm at 8470-8482 bp and a second arm at 13447-13459 bp, are three times more likely to cause deletions compared to direct repeats located outside of the contact zone. An analysis of age- and disease-associated deletions demonstrated that the contact zone plays a crucial role in explaining the age-associated deletions, emphasizing its importance in the rate of healthy aging. Overall, we provide topological insights into the mechanism of age-associated deletion formation in human mtDNA, which could be used to predict somatic deletion burden and maximum lifespan in different human haplogroups and mammalian species.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2019

Mitochondrial mutational spectrum provides an universal marker of cellular and organismal longevity

Mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) does not resemble signatures of any known mutagens and variation in mtDNA mutational spectra between different tissues and organisms is still incomprehensible. Since mitochondria is tightly involved in aerobic energy production, it is expected that mtDNA mutational spectra may be affected by the oxidative damage which is increasing with cellular and organismal aging. However, the well-documented mutational signature of the oxidative damage, G>T substitutions, is typical only for the nuclear genome while it is extremely rare and age-independent in mtDNA. Thus it is still unclear if there is a mitochondria - specific mutational signature of the oxidative damage. Here, reconstructing mtDNA mutational spectra for human cancers originated from 21 tissues with various cell turnover rate, human oocytes fertilized at different ages, and 424 mammalian species with variable generation length which is a proxy for oocyte age, we observed that the frequency of AH>GH substitutions (H - heavy chain notation) is positively correlated with cellular and organismal longevity. Moreover, this mutational bias from AH to GH affects nucleotide content at the fourfold degenerative synonymous positions leading to a deficit of AH and excess of GH, which is especially pronounced in long-lived mammals. Taking into account additionally, that AH>GH is sensitive to time being single stranded during mtDNA asynchronous replication and A>G is associated with oxidative damage of single-stranded DNA in recent bacterial experiments we propose that AH>GH is a mutational signature of oxidative damage in mtDNA.

genomics↗