Turns Out Mitochondria Can Come From Fathers Too (popularmechanics.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Popular Mechanics: We all know: The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. But the mitochondria is much more than a simple power plant. It's also a unique source of DNA that can give us important clues to our species and our history. That's because the DNA in your mitochondria comes only from your mother. At least, that's what we believed. But new research suggests that in some cases, mitochondrial DNA can be inherited from fathers, too. A group of researchers found three unrelated families where individuals had mitochondrial DNA from both parents. A total of 17 people across these three families were affected, suggesting that mitochondria aren't as exclusively maternal as scientists believed.

Comments

Oops

[olsmeister]

There's been a ton of science done with the assumption that mitochondria comes only from the mother that may need to be revisited, including the idea of a Mitochondrial Eve.

Re:Oops

[mentil]

First thing that came to mind is that this puts a damper on the entire concept of a Mitochondrial Eve. OTOH, this info could help fill in question marks that got in the way of resolving the question once and for all.

Re:Oops

[Can'tNot]

No, "may" is correct. Never assume that a popular-science article about a single research paper is the end of the story.

Re:Oops

[gravewax]

It is only a *Will* if the science is confirmed. At this point it is a definitely *may*

Re:Oops

[Michael Woodhams]

Only to a limited extent. It depends on how often this happens, and whether mitochondrial recombination is a thing.

"Normal" (nuclear) DNA undergoes recombination: there are two (not quite identical) copies of the genome, and bits get swapped between the copies, so a chromosome you got from your mum has bits that came from both of your maternal grandparents.

It is hard to know whether this process also happens in mitochondria, because the mitochondrial genomes seldom differ, and when they do, it is very likely they do so at only one place. If there is no mitochondrial recombination, then all mitochondrial genomes are inherited strictly from one parent, one grandparent, one great-grandparent etc. Mitochondrial Eve holds up fine, it is just that now those mitochondrial lineages very rarely are inherited through a male. The ancestry is still strictly a tree, where a 'parent' may have multiple 'children', but a 'child' has only on 'parent'. ('Child' and 'parent' here are individual mitochondrial genomes.)

I know there is research into mitochondrial recombination, but I don't know the field well enough to comment on the conclusions of this research.

Once you have recombination, the tree breaks down, and two mitochondrial lineages can merge together into a hybrid. However, if this is very rare (as seems to be the case) then the tree rooted at Mitochondrial Eve is still a very good approximation. In particular, it is still very likely that the entire sequences of all modern human mitochondria are descended from the mitochondria of a single woman.

Re:Oops

[Sique]

As far as I can tell from the original PNAS article, they found evidence of two sets of mtDNA (parental and maternal), but no recombination in a single mitochondrium.

Re:Oops

[fafalone]

Not only will they not revisit old cases, prosecutors and the 'Justice' Department are fighting like hell to not even stop using long-discredited bunkum in trials going forward. That was one of the first DOJ actions under Trump/Sessions, to disband a recently formed committee attempting to ensure valid science in trials.

Article Leaves Out Information

[Wheaty13]

The article is making suggestions while leaving out important information to try to make it seem like this could be common when the data does not support that conclusion.

I believe a better source can be found on Blaine Bettinger's blog https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2018/11/26/can-mtdna-really-come-dad/

Which includes the following:

"What is missed from the media coverage, however, is that these families were identified because member(s) were presenting with conditions that made the researchers suspect a mitochondrial disorder."

"Indeed, the paper discusses this single case, and emphasizes that many attempts in the ensuing 16 years to identify biparental mtDNA inheritance were unsuccessful:"

The farce is strong with this one

[Jogar the Barbarian]

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who read that as "midichlorians".

Re:Qui-Gon Jinn turns and says:

[goose-incarnated]

A group of researchers found three unrelated families where individuals had mitochondrial DNA from both parents.

Hmm ...

Actually raises the question: how did they know that those families where actually unrelated? mDNA from 25 generations ago when those three families were related can make its way into the current gen, no?

(Obviously, someone will post a lengthy and factually correct response to this explaining why that is not possible, right?)