Translational error in mice increases with ageing in an organ-dependent manner

Abstract The accuracy of protein synthesis and its relation to ageing has been of long-standing interest. To study whether spontaneous changes in the rate of ribosomal error occur as a function of age, we first determined that stop-codon readthrough is a more sensitive read-out of mistranslation due...

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Main Authors: Erik C. Böttger, Harshitha Santhosh Kumar, Adrian Steiner, Emmanuel Sotirakis, Kader Thiam, Patricia Isnard Petit, Petra Seebeck, David P. Wolfer, Dimitri Shcherbakov, Rashid Akbergenov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-02-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57203-z
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Summary:Abstract The accuracy of protein synthesis and its relation to ageing has been of long-standing interest. To study whether spontaneous changes in the rate of ribosomal error occur as a function of age, we first determined that stop-codon readthrough is a more sensitive read-out of mistranslation due to codon-anticodon mispairing than missense amino acid incorporation. Subsequently, we developed knock-in mice for in-vivo detection of stop-codon readthrough using a gain-of-function Kat2-TGA-Fluc readthrough reporter which combines fluorescent and sensitive bioluminescent imaging techniques. We followed expression of reporter proteins in-vivo over time, and assessed Kat2 and Fluc expression in tissue extracts and by whole organ ex-vivo imaging. Collectively, our results provide evidence for an organ-dependent, age-related increase in translational error: stop-codon readthrough increases with age in muscle (+ 75%, p < 0.001) and brain (+ 50%, p < 0.01), but not in liver (p > 0.5). Together with recent data demonstrating premature ageing in mice with an error-prone ram mutation, our findings highlight age-related decline of translation fidelity as a possible contributor to ageing.
ISSN:2041-1723