What is the relationship, if any, between Y-DNA and mitonchdrial or mDNA?
Answers
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Hi Jeryllynn,
Thanks for your question. I've net yet really "premiered" this group yet, but that's okay.
Mitochondria are "organelles" in each cell in the body. There are up to hundreds of them in each cell. They're called the cells' batteries because they metabolize the energy for the cells. When they misfunction, the cells begin to die and we're in trouble.
The remarkable thing about them is that MT-DNA has their own genome. It's small -- very than 17,000 bases. The other remarkable thing i the egg is packed with MT-DNA which provides the fertilized with the needed energy. The sperm has very little MT-DNA. What survives is overwhelmed by the vast amounts of MT-DNA in the egg. Therefore, all the MT-DNA we inherit comes from the mother. It then follows the mother line straight up the lineage. In other words, you got your MT-DNA from your mother and hers from her mother. The markers in your MT-DNA look exactly like those from your great-great-grandmother and beyond.
I'll make the description of the Y much shorter since this i what this group is about. Let's suffice it to say for now that the Y chromosome carries the male sex gene. It goes, then, that woman do not have a Y chromosome (otherwise, you'd have the male sex gene) and that a man's Y comes directly from his father. It's passed straight down the male line.
MT-DNA mutates on average of once very 1,000. Y-DNA mutates on average every 50-100 years. That means you can detect frequent branches in the Y lineage.
I hope that helps.
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