Research Paper Volume 8, Issue 12 pp 3468—3485

Figure 6. mtDNA rearrangements accumulate with age. Shown is a schematic depicting the mitochondrial genome (A, adapted from [9]). Long-range PCR was used to amplify mtDNA, with a reverse primer at the origin of heavy strand replication (O_H) within the displacement loop (DLOOP, in grey). The mitochondrial genome was amplified from RNR2 to DLOOP (14.7kb, B), from ND2 to DLOOP (11.6kb, C), and from ATP8 to DLOOP (8.1kb, D) to identify wild-type and altered mtDNA in homogenized quadriceps muscle. Shorter bands from young adult (E) and aged adult (F) samples were sequenced to identify the location of breakpoints in the NMR mitochondrial genome. Mapping of deletions is shown in red (G). 3’ breakpoints occur from 15110-15670 and 5’ breakpoints occur from either 1232-1495 or 5058-5803.