Mechanism of age-related accumulation of mtDNA mutations in human blood

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10569-6

Genome-wide analyses indicate that accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations, a hallmark of ageing, may be caused by cryptic replication errors, which act as passenger mutations that eventually become detectable with age owing to age-related somatic mosaicism, rather than oxidative damage.