Mitochondrial DNA
In addition to nuclear DNA, humans (like almost all eukaryotes) have mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria, the "power houses" of a cell, have their own DNA because they are descended from a proteobacterium that merged with eukaryotic cells over 2 billion years ago—an assertion known as the endosymbiotic hypothesis. Mitochondria are inherited from one's mother, and its DNA is frequently used to trace maternal lines of descent (see mitochondrial Eve). Mitochondrial DNA is only 16kb in length and encodes for 62 genes.
Read more about this topic: Genetics Of Humans
Famous quotes containing the word dna:
“Here [in London, history] ... seemed the very fabric of things, as if the city were a single growth of stone and brick, uncounted strata of message and meaning, age upon age, generated over the centuries to the dictates of some now all-but-unreadable DNA of commerce and empire.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)