Biparental Inheritance of Mitochondrial DNA
The general rule of mitochondrial inheritance is: ‘ 37 genes mitochondrial DNA of maternal origin’ Nothing more and nothing less. What would we do without it? This well-supported assumption about mitochondrial inheritance has formed the frameworks for decades of calculations that then went on to inform the bulk of modern ancestral analyses. Recognised as one of the most reliable methods for understanding phylogeny, due to its reliable and slow rate of mutation, small changes in mitochondrial DNA among isolated groups signposted the split from a mother and thus revealed details on evolutionary origins and likely historical migration patterns. Though, in the same way that the organisms we study themselves evolve, our understanding is once more on the brink of a revolution. Beliefs in the background In 2002, danish researchers challenged this widely-held understanding after studying a male patient whose DNA was sequenced in the hopes of finding the origins of his mitoch