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posted by martyb on Friday August 26 2016, @03:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the when-more-is-NOT-better dept.

Scientists have recreated heteroplasmy by producing embryos with both maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA:

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from the University of Missouri has succeeded in creating embryos with "heteroplasmy," or the presence of both maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA. This new innovation will allow scientists to study treatments for mitochondrial diseases in humans as well as the significance of mitochondrial inheritance for livestock.

When parents pass along their genes to their children, most of the DNA from the mother and father is evenly divided. However, children only receive one type of [mitochondrial DNA] from their mothers, while the fathers' mitochondrial DNA is naturally removed from the embryos. Peter Sutovsky, a professor of reproductive physiology at Mizzou and lead author Won-Hee Song, a doctoral candidate in the Mizzou College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, have found a way to prevent this paternal mitochondrial DNA removal process in pig embryos, thus creating embryos with "heteroplasmy."

"As many as 4,000 children are born in the U.S. every year with some form of mitochondrial disease, which can include poor growth, loss of muscle coordination, learning disabilities and heart disease," Sutovsky said. "Some scientists believe some of these diseases may be caused by heteroplasmy, or cells possessing both maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA. We have succeeded in creating this condition of heteroplasmy within pig embryos, which will allow scientists to further study whether paternal heteroplasmy could cause mitochondrial diseases in humans."

Autophagy and ubiquitin–proteasome system contribute to sperm mitophagy after mammalian fertilization (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1605844113) (DX)

Previous/Related:
Project to Repair Mitochondria Funded
Three-Person Babies Could Be Possible in Two Years
U.S. Panel Gives Tentative Endorsement to Three-Person IVF
Newcastle University Study Verifies Safety of Three-Person IVF


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  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday August 26 2016, @02:15PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Friday August 26 2016, @02:15PM (#393482) Journal

    I'm imagining our descendants trying to use mitochondrial DNA to study human history ten thousand years from now, when our drowned civilisation is barely more than myth and our knowledge all but lost,
    This will really fuck with their heads. Why don't we just fake up some authentic-looking Indominous Rex fossils while we're at it and bury them in the bedrock? Hell, throw in a few Godzilla bones too.
     

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