Mitochondrial clonal mosaicism encodes a biphasic molecular clock of aging.

Abstract

Mitochondria rapidly accumulate mutations throughout a lifetime, potentially acting as a molecular clock for aging and disease. We profiled mitochondrial RNA across 47 human tissues from 838 individuals, revealing rapid development of clonal mosaicism with two distinct tissue-specific aging signatures. Tissues with constant cellular turnover such as the gastrointestinal tract or skin exhibit accelerated accumulation of sporadic mutations and clonal expansions, implicating increased susceptibility to age-related tumorigenesis and dysfunction. By contrast, post-mitotic tissues, such as the heart and brain, accumulate mutations at deterministic hotspots (tissue-specific, recurrently mutated sites), reflecting the cumulative burden of high energy demand and mitochondrial turnover independent of cell division. These findings support a biphasic model of the mitochondrial clock: stochastic clonal expansion of sporadic replication errors in proliferative tissues, versus age-dependent heteroplasmy increases at hotspots in high-metabolic tissues. This mutational landscape provides a map of tissue-specific vulnerabilities during aging and offers potential therapeutic targets.