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Large-scale single-cell mapping of concealed mitochondrial ageing

Jethwani, H.; Sukandar, K.; Green, A. P.; Insalata, F.; Golder, Z.; Schon, K.; Asquith, B.; Chinnery, P. F.; Jones, N. S.

2026-07-20 genomics
10.64898/2026.07.14.738425 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations have been linked to ageing. We find that the mtDNA mutations detected in routine bulk sequencing are greatly outnumbered by a class of concealed mutations that, despite being in a proliferative tissue, show little negative selection. Combining new scATAC-seq experiments with existing scRNA-seq, we map mtDNA mutations across 2.7 million cells from 311 individuals, covering 11 proliferative cell types and 5 tissues. We find that low-prevalence mutations (in[≤] 1% of assayed cells), concealed from routine bulk sequencing, accumulate markedly with age, with mutations unique to single cells (cryptic) predominating. We find a near universal accumulation rate across cell types and tissues, with, by age 50, approximately 40% of cells having at least one mutation affecting 30% of cellular mtDNA or more. At a correlative level we find that human age can be predicted from these concealed mutations but there is evidence of, possibly physiological, inter-individual variation. These low-prevalence mutations (unlike mutations tracking larger clones) show limited negative selection and coincide with gene-expression changes marking dysfunction.

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