"Mitochondria are flinging their DNA into our brain celLs"

"Mitochondrial DNA behaves like a virus"

Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts (2023)

Combined, our data document spontaneous numtogenesis in human cells and demonstrate an association between brain cortical somatic Numts and human lifespan.

These findings open the possibility that mito-nuclear horizontal gene transfer among human post-mitotic tissues produce functionally-relevant human Numts over timescales shorter than previously assumed.

University of Michigan School of Medicine

Colombia University Irving Medical Center

The insertions are called nuclear-mitochondrial segments—NUMTs ("pronounced new-mites")—and have been accumulating in our chromosomes for millions of years.

"As a result, all of us are walking around with hundreds of vestigial, mostly benign mitochondrial DNA segments in our chromosomes that we inherited from our ancestors," Mills says.

"Mitochondrial DNA insertions are common in the human brain"

"Stress accelerates NUMTogenesis"

A systematic review on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction/disorders

in neurodevelopmental disorders and psychiatric/behavioral disorders (2024)