MNT: How Mitochondrial DNA Defects Cause Inherited Deafness
Date: 19.4.2012
Yale scientists have discovered the molecular pathway by which maternally inherited deafness appears to occur: Mitochondrial DNA mutations trigger a signaling cascade, resulting in programmed cell death. The study is in Cell.
Mitochondria are cellular structures that function as "cellular power plants" because they generate most of the cell's supply of energy. They contain DNA inherited from one's mother. Mitochondria determine whether a cell lives or dies via the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis.
The Yale scientists focused on a specific mitochondrial DNA mutation that causes maternally inherited deafness. The mutation occurs in a gene that codes for RNA in mitochondrial ribosomes, which generate proteins required for cellular respiration. The team found that cell lines containing this mutation are prone to cell death not directly due to the mutation, but rather because it enhanced a normal chemical modification of the RNA called methylation, which regulates ribosome assembly...
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