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Typically, humans inherit mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA from their mothers only. But using sequencing data from the mitochondrial genomes of members from three unrelated families, researchers have identified 17 individuals who inherited mtDNA from both parents. The results were published last week (November 26) in PNAS.
“This is a very interesting study, bringing compelling evidence that bi-parental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA happens in human,” Sophie Breton, an evolutionary geneticist who studies mitochondrial genome inheritance at the University of Montreal and who was not involved in the work, writes in an email to The Scientist. “The [sequencing] technique used to demonstrate these results is simple but very powerful.”
Taosheng Huang, a pediatrician and medical geneticist who heads the Mitochondrial Diseases Program at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, stumbled upon the first individual with mtDNA from both his parents by accident. The patient, a four-year-old boy who had ...
