Can mitochondrial DNA alone refute the idea of human race?
If race were proved to be not based in biology, that it was merely a social construct, wouldn't this statement require an extensive study of gene frequencies in nuclear DNA? For example, let us say that blacks in America truly have a genetic advantage in sports such as basketball and football, to refute or substantiate this claim there would need to be a study of large populations measuring athletic ability (as a series of genes) and mapping the frequencies across already established racial lines. Is this true?
Tags: athletic ability, basketball, biology, blacks in america, gene frequencies, genes, genetic advantage, nuclear dna, populations, sports
November 6th, 2009 at 4:46 am
You are talking about two different things here, mitochondrial DNA (MT-DNA) and nuclear DNA or autosomal DNA. The two are very different.The idea of race is not a social construct it is purely a classification based on physical phenotype and nothing more. Although it is becoming socially unacceptable to group people into race there is an undeniable fact that people look different although we all come from the same mother from the Rift Valley in Africa over 60,000 years ago. In geneology y-chromosomal and MT-DNA studies are used to find out if you are related to some one with the same or similar surname, while autosomal DNA is suppose to determine your admix of genetic input which could be quite varied due to mixing of "races." Generally speaking, certain races have predominant haplogroups eg, a native from Papua New Guniea will probably belong to y-chromosome haplogroup S, while a man from Croatia will probably belong to y-chromosome haplogroup I. There are no selective pressure to suggest that one haplogroup is advantagous over the other so the answer is simply NO.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:46 am
I agreed with Roger except for the assumption of the rift valley as the home of the mitochondrial eve. Because of gene flow, any mutation can exist in any part of the population. They base the location on the current DNA of people of that region being most diverse. That ignores the fact that populations migrate. You can’t rationally say where mitochondrial eve is from. She could have lived anywhere that our ancestors at the time lived.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:46 am
I think Roger S gave the best answer.
Very impressive.