Resolving the enigma of the clonal expansion of mtDNA deletions

Mitochondria are cell organelles that are special since they contain their own genetic material in the form of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Damage and mutations of mtDNA are not only involved in several inherited human diseases but are also widely thought to play an important role during aging. In both cases, point mutations or large deletions accumulate inside cells, leading to functional impairment once a certain threshold has been surpassed. In most cases, it is a single type of mutant that clonally expands and out-competes the wild type mtDNA, with different mutant molecules being amplified in different cells. The challenge is to explain where the selection advantage for the accumulation comes from, why such a large range of different deletions seem to possess this advantage, and how this process can scale to species with different lifespans such as those of rats and man. From this perspective, we provide an overview of current ideas, present an update of our own proposal, and discuss the wider relevance of the phenomenon for aging

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes

Publisher's version (útgefin grein).Human longevity is heritable, but genome-wide association (GWA) studies have had limited success. Here, we perform two meta-analyses of GWA studies of a rigorous longevity phenotype definition including 11,262/3484 cases surviving at or beyond the age corresponding to the 90th/99th survival percentile, respectively, and 25,483 controls whose age at death or at last contact was at or below the age corresponding to the 60th survival percentile. Consistent with previous reports, rs429358 (apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4) is associated with lower odds of surviving to the 90th and 99th percentile age, while rs7412 (ApoE ε2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78, associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.Alexander von Humboldt-StiftungPeer Reviewe

Data from: Explaining sex differences in lifespan in terms of optimal energy allocation in the baboon

We provide a quantitative test of the hypothesis that sex role specialisation may account for sex differences in lifespan in baboons if such specialisation causes the dependency of fitness upon longevity, and consequently the optimal resolution to an energetic trade-off between somatic maintenance and other physiological functions, to differ between males and females. We present a model in which females provide all offspring care and males compete for access to reproductive females and in which the partitioning of available energy between the competing fitness-enhancing functions of growth, maintenance and reproduction is modelled as a dynamic behavioural game, with the optimal decision for each individual depending upon his/her state and the behaviour of other members of the population. Our model replicates the sexual dimorphism in body size and sex differences in longevity and reproductive scheduling seen in natural populations of baboons. We show that this outcome is generally robust to perturbations in model parameters, an important finding given the same behaviour is seen across multiple populations and species in the wild. This supports the idea that sex differences in longevity result from differences in the value of somatic maintenance relative to other fitness-enhancing functions in keeping with the disposable soma theory