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| | | Subject: A703199 - Mitochondrial Eve - An Explanation
Posted Mar 6, 2002 by Potholer
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26
  | | I think the article was very good as far as the target audience was concerned, and was also an excellent starting point for deeper debates about the theory.
I hope what I wrote wasn't taken as negative criticism, since most of it was either ponderings about the wider theory, or an attempt to explain stuff to other people, and I probably wasn't the target reader anyway.
There really were only a few small points in the article that maybe needed clarification (like : was she our most recent common ancestor, or just our most recent common *female-line* ancestor).
While someone else might end up writing a more drily scientific article, I suspect it wouldn't be as accessible to the layperson.
Though there are areas of contention on the subject of mitochondria (can some be inherited from the father in rare cases, is there any kind of recombination that occurs in such cases?), that kind of discussion could easily be served by a secondary article by some other researcher, so I don't think there's much wrong with making general categorical statements that may not always be strictly correct, since this article was meant to be an introduction to the subject.
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| | | Subject: A703199 - Mitochondrial Eve - An Explanation
Posted Jun 19, 2002 by Friar
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30
| | Outstanding articel and outstanding discussion.
I realize that you were trying to create a simple article, but I feel some points deserve a slightly deeper look.
I feel a short discussion about nuclear DNA would help. People many not realize that mitochondrial DNA does not contribute to anything other than mitochondrial genetic expression. It's our nuclear DNA that creates the vast majority of our phenotype. Mitochondrial DNA is isolated from nuclear DNA.
I also feel that a better discussion of the role of cytoplasm at the moment of fertilization may help. Basically, Daddy only gives nuclear DNA, but Mommy's egg is where the nuclear DNA mixes. SO for a breif period the fertilized egg exists with a cell thet is almost entirely from Mommy. All Mommy's organelles are there, but none of daddy's. But when the new nuclear DNA starts to work it makes all new organelles that belong to Baby. Still, Baby doesn't have new DNA for mitochondria. The old mitochondria carry that information. Baby doesn't make its own. The old mitochondria just clone themselves over and over. They do so regardless of what kind of cell they are in (as long as they have the nutrients). Therefore since baby didn't make it's own mitochondria, it had to use clones from Mommy's old mitochondria. Strangely enough, when Mommy was Baby, she did the same thing. Because the mitochondria makes such accurate clones, of the thousands of base pairs of DNA (the rungs of the DNA ladder) you and grandma have basically exactly the same mtDNA.
So fellas, all of us Y chromosome carrying folks can forget about passing along our mtDNA to our progeny.
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| | | Subject: A703199 - Mitochondrial Eve - An Explanation
Posted Jun 19, 2002 by Friar
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
31
| | Outstanding articel and outstanding discussion.
I realize that you were trying to create a simple article, but I feel some points deserve a slightly deeper look.
I feel a short discussion about nuclear DNA would help. People many not realize that mitochondrial DNA does not contribute to anything other than mitochondrial genetic expression. It's our nuclear DNA that creates the vast majority of our phenotype. Mitochondrial DNA is isolated from nuclear DNA.
I also feel that a better discussion of the role of cytoplasm at the moment of fertilization may help. Basically, Daddy only gives nuclear DNA, but Mommy's egg is where the nuclear DNA mixes. SO for a breif period the fertilized egg exists with a cell thet is almost entirely from Mommy. All Mommy's organelles are there, but none of daddy's. But when the new nuclear DNA starts to work it makes all new organelles that belong to Baby. Still, Baby doesn't have new DNA for mitochondria. The old mitochondria carry that information. Baby doesn't make its own. The old mitochondria just clone themselves over and over. They do so regardless of what kind of cell they are in (as long as they have the nutrients). Therefore since baby didn't make it's own mitochondria, it had to use clones from Mommy's old mitochondria. Strangely enough, when Mommy was Baby, she did the same thing. Because the mitochondria makes such accurate clones, of the thousands of base pairs of DNA (the rungs of the DNA ladder) you and grandma have basically exactly the same mtDNA.
So fellas, all of us Y chromosome carrying folks can forget about passing along our mtDNA to our progeny.
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