There is a phenomenon called paternal leakage in which a small amount of the mitochondrial DNA from the father is found in the offspring. If paternal leakage is assumed to occur in most matings, how would it change our interpretation of studies of mitochondrial DNA in human ancestors and in groups of different modern humans?

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Biology

Janelle Harrison

19 November, 16:31

There is a phenomenon called paternal leakage in which a small amount of the mitochondrial DNA from the father is found in the offspring. If paternal leakage is assumed to occur in most matings, how would it change our interpretation of studies of mitochondrial DNA in human ancestors and in groups of different modern humans?

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Jazlene Ho · Answer 1

Maternal inheritance means the transfer of characters from mothers to offspring through mitochondria. The paternal leakage means some mitochondria transfer from the father as well.

As the information given in the question, the amount of DNA from father's mitochondria is small. The quite small amount of DNA will not affect the conclusions and results that are made by the studies and do not affect the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA.