Genetics and Health

Tracing Mitochondrial DNA

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on December 15th, 2006

In the January 2007 issue of Scientific American, M. Sivak of Irvington, NY asked the experts:

How do researchers trace mitochondrial DNA over centuries?

Ber Ely, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, responded:

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) does not change very much, if at all, from generation to generation. The mtDNA passes only from a mother to her children; fathers cannot impart their mtDNA.

Mutations (changes) do occur in mtDNA but not often—less frequently than once per 100 descendants. Therefore, a person’s mtDNA is probably identical to that of his or her direct maternal ancestor a dozen generations back, and this shared inheritance can be used to connect people across large spans of time. For example, if a particular type of mtDNA were found primarily in Africa, then we could conclude that people from elsewhere in the world who had that type of mtDNA had a maternal ancestor from Africa.

This was an excerpt of the answer which will probably be online for nonsubscribers soon. Read more about mitochondrial DNA in genetics quiz #14.

Tags: mitochondrial dna, dna, genetics, genes, mtdna, diseases, illness, health, mitochondria, genealogy

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