I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is - when I took my biology course decades ago, it was explained to me that both maternal and paternal mitochondria were passed on, but the Egg is so much larger than the sperm, that the impact of of paternal mitochondria, and amount passed on, was relatively minor. I guess the interesting detail here is that the amount present raises to the level of catching a DNA scan.
Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
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Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#12In the age of low-cost DNA sequencing, shouldn't this be simple to figure out?
Yes, it is very easy to identify paternal mitochondrial inheritance in the current era. The catch is that a very low proportion of the population has mitochondrial genomic sequencing (currently). Typically, those who do have their mitochondrial genomes sequenced are those who are suspected of having mitochondrial disease and the prevalence of mitochondrial disease is very low. Of those who are sequenced, the overwhelming majority will have a mutation, that if inherited, is from the mother. I should also add that there are many 'common' mutations that cause the majority of mitochondrial disease and, as expected in a clinical diagnostic setting, these are the most frequently observed and identified molecular diagnoses. Paternal inheritance of mitochondria harboring a disease-causing mutation represents an extraordinarily rare etiology for an already very rare disease.
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#13Aside: this question came to mind today, is there any discernible genetic component from a surrogate mother (a womb donor, as it were)? It seems highly likely to me a priori?
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#14I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is - when I took my biology course decades ago, it was explained to me that both maternal and paternal mitochondria were passed on, but the Egg is so much larger than the sperm, that the impact of of paternal mitochondria, and amount passed on, was relatively minor. I guess the interesting detail here is that the amount present raises to the level of catching a DNA scan.
it is not about the size; paternal mtdna dies after fertilization:
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/paternal-mito...
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#15This has been known for a long time. It's a myth that mtDNA only comes from the mother and was based on a misreading of an old paper decades ago. I don't know why the myth has so much traction among geneticists who should know better. Many claims have been made deriving from these assumptions. Nearly all research purporting to date past branches of populations based on mtDNA mutations by assuming a maternal clone is…
> Nearly all research purporting to date past branches of populations based on mtDNA mutations by assuming a maternal clone is passed, and any differences are mutations, is completely off. All that research is and always has been invalid. This is a drastic and totally implausible statement that is not supported by any serious geneticist, nor by the Wikipedia article you've linked to. mtDNA does not have to come exclu…
It seems also plausible that the cases where paternal mtDNA are passed on, would be disproportionately likely to have mitochondrial disease and thus eventually die out. We don't know that this is so, but it seems more likely true than not, given what we do know. If so, they would not really impact research done over evolutionary timescales.
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#16I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is - when I took my biology course decades ago, it was explained to me that both maternal and paternal mitochondria were passed on, but the Egg is so much larger than the sperm, that the impact of of paternal mitochondria, and amount passed on, was relatively minor. I guess the interesting detail here is that the amount present raises to the level of catching a DNA scan.
Interesing. That’s not what I was taught in biology class in the 2010’s.
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#17I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is - when I took my biology course decades ago, it was explained to me that both maternal and paternal mitochondria were passed on, but the Egg is so much larger than the sperm, that the impact of of paternal mitochondria, and amount passed on, was relatively minor. I guess the interesting detail here is that the amount present raises to the level of catching a DNA scan.
[deleted]
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#18I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is - when I took my biology course decades ago, it was explained to me that both maternal and paternal mitochondria were passed on, but the Egg is so much larger than the sperm, that the impact of of paternal mitochondria, and amount passed on, was relatively minor. I guess the interesting detail here is that the amount present raises to the level of catching a DNA scan.
> I'm not sure how much of a "plot twist" this is
I was taught differently in 1998.
There was the press coverage of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus) which was referenced in a scene of https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872732/
It can be said that it's a plot twist that was stoked for decades.
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#19Aside: this question came to mind today, is there any discernible genetic component from a surrogate mother (a womb donor, as it were)? It seems highly likely to me a priori ?
Nope...
BUT: the microbiome, as well as the immune system, are closely linked to the “physical” mother.
Re: Mitochondrial DNA can come from both parents
#20More info here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa020350