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Large accumulation of mRNA and DNA point modifications in a plant senescent tissue
Author(s) -
Pla Maria,
Jofré Anna,
Martell Maria,
Molinas Marisa,
Gómez Jordi
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)01424-1
Subject(s) - senescence , biology , nucleic acid , dna , point mutation , dna damage , endogeny , somatic cell , complementary dna , rna , mitochondrial dna , mutation , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , biochemistry
Although nucleic acids are the paradigm of genetic information conservation, they are inherently unstable molecules that suffer intrinsic and environmental damage. Oxidative stress has been related to senescence and aging and, recently, it has been shown that mutations accumulate at high frequency in mitochondrial DNA with age. We investigated RNA and DNA modifications in cork, a senescent plant tissue under high endogenous oxidative stress conditions. When compared to normally growing young tissue, cork revealed an unexpected high frequency of point modifications in both cDNA (Pn=1/1784) and nuclear DNA (Pn=1/1520). Cork should be viewed as a mosaic of genetically heterogeneous cells. This has biological implications: it supports somatic mutation models for aging and challenges ‘single cDNA clone’ as descriptor for the molecular genetics of senescent tissues.