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. 2011 May 30;193(5):809–818. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201010024

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© 2011 Park and Larsson

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Figure 2. — Mitotic segregation of mtDNA. A single mutational event creates heteroplasmy in a cell, but the level of mutated mtDNA (red dots) is very low in comparison with normal mtDNA (green dots). There is no synchronization between cell division and mtDNA replication, and a particular mtDNA molecule may be replicated many times or not at all during a single cell cycle. Repeated cell division will lead to mitotic segregation of normal and mutated mtDNA, and accumulation of mutated mtDNA above a certain threshold level will lead to impaired respiratory chain function.