A Conversation for Mitochondria - Power Plants of the Cell
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Vandervecken Started conversation Jun 13, 2001
Just wanted to say thanks for a very illuminating entry. I didn't know about the mitochondrial DNA being maternally-inherited. How interesting!
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Ommigosh Posted Jun 13, 2001
I heard a chap on Radio Scotland today saying that he analyses mitochondrial DNA (which is maternally inherited). From what he has seen, he reckons that 95% of Europeans are descended from just seven (7) women who lived between 10 000 and 45 000 years ago! I thought that was quite amazing.
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Orcus Posted Jun 13, 2001
You should have watched Horizon a few weeks ago (assuming you are British 
.
It was about supervolcanoes (hundreds of times more powerful than Krakatoa) and apparently a supervolcano erupted around then and they think that is what might have caused this.
Its a contoversial topic mind as not all scientists agree that mitchondrial DNA mutates regularly like a clock which is what they use to estimate this timescale.
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milo Posted Jun 14, 2001
That is why a recent child was deemed genetically modified. It was created from a donor egg and a fertilised nucleus. The nucleus contained DNA from a mother and father and the egg had DNA from the donor inside the mitachondria. In effect the child had 3 genetic parents.
True story.
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