LifeMap DNA

3 Responses to “What is the relevance of mitochondrial DNA to evolution?”

1. emucompboy Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

   Your mitochondria are part of "maternal cytoplasmic inheritance" — that is, all your mitochondria and therefore all your mitochondrial DNA come only from your mother, and not from your father.

   Non-fatal mutations in mitochondrial DNA are assumed to occur at approximately regular intervals, and can thus be used as a "molecular clock" for determining how long it’s been since two people shared a common female ancestor.

   For the most recent common female ancestor of all humanity, see the link.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
   This is recent enough so that we’d consider her to be human, but she would not have been a good conversationalist. She wasn’t interested in art or literature.

   Edit:
   The fact that mitochondria have their own DNA at all gave rise to the endosymbiosis theory: the theory that eukaryotic cells were formed by repeated parasitism of a larger (single celled) organism by smaller bacteria. The mitochondria appear to have been one such parasitic bacteria. Chloroplasts are another.

2. BIGgourami (Back From the Dead) Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

   mDNA is transfered on the maternal X chromosome… any change recorded in any DNA is technically evolution

   measuring the relative proportions of certain changes in mDNA in populations can form markers for recent evolutionary changes…

   other than that your question is a little abiguous… rather much like asking "what is the relevance of DNA ro evolution"
   DNA is the basis of evolution

3. Winsfield Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

   The only one I can think of is that an amoeba engulfed a mitochondrial like cell(one that produces ATP) and in time the engulfed cell acts like a current day mitochondria, in that it produces ATP for the body. Why mitochondrial DNA is relevant is because it showed that the mitochondria could have been living and reproducing individually with other mitochondria hence the DNA but then engulfed by another organism for the use of making ATP