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[revenant]

As I am left gobsmacked by this, I was hoping some here could share thier insights on this new research. 

 

https://www.mdpi.com...067/24/19/14858

 

 

 

 

 

 

[QuestforLife]

This is a pretty amazing discovery. I have not read the paper thoroughly yet, but one thing occurs...

 

Methylation is absolutely vital in mitochondria, in fact you can't make new mitochondrial DNA without formyl-methionine, it is the start codon for bacterial DNA. See the action of SHMT1/2 for more information.

 

So, accumulating methylated adenine could (I am speculating here,) just be the marker of continued mitochondrial DNA manufacture. This is supported by the fact that this marker falls not long before death, as shown in figures in this paper. 

 

So, it is not at all clear to me that we'd want to reduce the methylation of mitochonrial DNA, or that if we did, we'd expect an increase in lifespan. The fact it accumulates slower in longer lived animals, merely indicates there lower rate of mitochondrial translation in those animals.  

 

There is data on the dysfunction of methyl transferases with age, and I'd look to this for why mitochondria go wrong. My bet is glycine starvation. But it is possible there are other factors, and of course I could be completely wrong and methylation of adenine could be causing dysfunctiion. 

 

I'll read the paper through as soon as I get time to see what the authors think.