Mitochondrial Eve, An Inquiry

Kayla Sanderson block 4

12/18/2015

Mitochondria is defined simply as; "an organelle in the cytoplasm of cells that functions in
energy production."(Dictionary.com, 2015) But on January 1st, 1987, researchers Rebecca Cann,
Mark Stoneking, and Allan C. Wilson published a paper by the name of "Mitochondrial DNA and
Human Evolution that changed the common conceptions of mitochondria. The article
proposed the idea that mitochondria contained DNA soley passed down through maternal lines,
and went so far as to claim that with this information, we could accurately pinpoint the origins
of human conception(Harrub & Thompson, 2015). This leaves several questions unanswered by
the scientific community. First, how can mitochondria be used in the ways stated previously,
what is the difference between nuclear DNA, as opposed to mtDNA? What makes them
different? Why? how could the accurate pinpointing of human conception alter the traditional
views of evolution and the approach of archeology focused studies? Lastly, What implications
might the timeline of human conception have on the modern takes of religion?
How is it possible for a small organelle such as mitochondria be so crucial to the dating of
human origin?
The answer lies in the DNA. When people hear DNA their first thought is often nuclear DNA
due to the fact that it is the most important part of the cell for functions of living. mtDNA on
the other hand is not as complex as the its rival DNA, as it only has around 7000 base pairs that
code for 37 genes (only 2 that are exclusive to the mitochondria), 13 proteins, 33 tRNA strands,
and 2 rRNA strands compared to the 200, 000 base pairs of DNA(Deena T Kochunni, 2015).
Additionally, mitochondria are thought to have originated from -purple bacteria accepted into
the cell which then forms a symbiotic relationship and evolved into the modern understanding
of the organelle. Mitochondria reproduce by dividing via binary fission much like the nuclear
DNA, one difference being that the ring shaped structures of the mtDNA are not rearranged in
the process of recombination as is the case with

DNA. the lack of recombination stage in mtDNA allow for the genome to be very consistent
and only have a few mutations occurring within a set time frame(Taanman, 2015). The time
frame and amount of mutations can then be used to date a person's age and ancestry, the
same way you would at a local library, though a great deal more acuratly.
How could the accurate pinpointing of human conception alter the traditional views of evolution
and archeology focused studies?
A large part of archaeology is understanding what people did and why. The ability to track
immigration patterns across specific geography regions was an extraordinary opportunity for
them to do. By tracing and testing genomes, you can see the clear correlations between specific
people or even groups. The research gave archaeologists an accurate ideas as to where to find
remains and sites of historical significance in Africa(Oppenheimer, 2015). These groups then
help to characterize and appreciate the effect that the discovery of an accurate understanding
of human migration patterns. The use of mtDNA doesnt just extend to groups of people but to
individual people as well, mtDNA has been used to trace the ancestry of a specific person which
is beneficial for historically significant bloodlines.
How is it that we only have female mitochondria?
Both male and female reproductive cells have mitochondria, the female tends to have
them in large quantities along the cell membrane of the cell. Males sperm does have
mitochondria needed to power the long trip of the sperm to the egg, but upon entry to the
female overum these mitochondria tend to shrivel and die. Furthermore, the sperm is stored in
the bottom of the sperms "tail" which often falls of before the trip is completed. In some cases
though, they do survive when they enter the egg cell, but success is short lived. all paternal
mtDNA are pretty much by the zygotes within the first week, if not initially.
What is mitochondrial Eve?
While researchers looked into the mystery of mitochondria's complicated bacterial origin,
they stumbled upon ground breaking information. This was so revolutionary because until this
point it was thought that all of our hereditary information came from an equally split amount of

information from both of our parents. Mitochondria is passed on genetically through the
maternal line, in mammals. Because of the fact that it is simply passed from mother to mother,
it was the expectation of researchers to see that all mitochondria would be carbon copies of
their mothers, but this was not the case. It was found that all strands have slight variations of
their genetic make ups due to miniscule mutations. This lead to the idea that we can trace
these mutations This sparked a great deal of interest from researchers looking to trace human
migratory patterns across time. In order to do the experiment they needed large amounts of
mtDNA that are in most cases not naturally occurring. because of how small these quantities
are in our bodies researchers looked to find a more concentrated dosage, the human placenta.
Rebecca Cann and her colleagues selected 145 pregnant women and two cell lines representing
the five major geographic regions: 20 Africans, 34 Asians, 46 Caucasians, 21 aboriginal
Australians, and 26 aboriginal New Guineans (Cann, et al., 1987, 325:32). The researcher's
yielded that people from China where more alike with other Chinese that they where with
caucasians and vice versa, this was constant among all groups besides those of African test
participants. There was greater diversity between the participants than there where among any
of the other ethnic groups. The implied results of the study became obvious to the
investigators, the greater concentration of mutated genes implied more difference and more
time in which these differences could have occurred. Furthermore the presence of 13 Africans
among the non African group of genome grouping meant that the common denominator
between the groups was simply Africa. Next they had to find out just how old these ancestral
groups might be, so they used a method know as the molecular clock, the time in this case was
the amount of mutations in a certain period of time(brown, 2015). For example if a mutation
occurred every 200 years and researchers found 15 mutations they could say that the ancestor,
or "Eve" lived approximately 3,000 years ago. The next question dealt with by researchers was
how old exactly is this clock? And how could they accurately find the time between ticks? The
scientists "compared the groups in their study that were close geographically, and took the
age of the common ancestor from estimated times of settlement as indicated by anthropology
and archaeology. Again, 2% to 4% every million years seemed reasonable to them. Since the
common mitochondrial ancestor diverged from all others by 0.57%, she must have lived

sometime between approximately 140,000 (0.57 4 1,000,000) and 290,000 (0.57 2

1,000,000) years ago. The figure of 200,000 was chosen as a suitable round number."(Harrub &
Thompson, 2015) This gave birth to the increasingly popular theory of evolution, the "out of
Africa theory" that was commonly accepted by the scientific community, but with any good
theory comes a grand dethroning. In the years following the popular rise of the theory several
studies where published that challenged the traditional views of the study. Alan Templeton
even went to far as to claim that Mitochondria Eve does, "not support the hypothesis of a
recent African origin for all of humanity following a split between Africans and non-Africans
100,000 years ago" and also did "not support the hypothesis of a recent global replacement of
humans coming out of Africa." (Templeton A (1997) but these criticisms should be taken with a
grain of salt, as new information published in 2013, gave it new legs to stand on.
What implications might the timeline of human conception have on the modern takes of
religion?
Some of the main questions that religion serves to answer is Where did we come from?
Although mitochondria are not the source of all of our answers they give us a pretty solid
background in terms of a timeline. For instance we can with almost 100% accuracy say that
humans originated and evolved into a human eske semblance approximately 200 000 years ago,
this directly confronts the modern take of creationists on the concepts of time relative to the
creation of earth (approximately 6000-1000 accepted by the book of Genesis). The use of the of
the naming convention of "Mitochondrial Eve" and it's twin theory "chromosomal Adam" lay as
allusion toward the biblical story of creation, that focused around the two first peoples. The
name of the article itself further tied the studies with the biblical stories, the colloquial name of
"coming out of the garden". After the theory was initially published a large group of creationist
backing mitochondria lovers seemed to materialize overnight. This group of followers used the
theory to validate the biblical versus and some even went so far as to claim that they disproved
the theory of evolution. The idea was quickly shaken off as the theory supports Eve having a
mother, being like others of her kind, and not being completely isolated, all of which defy the

possibilities set forth by biblical restrictions, not to mention the discrepancy of time.(Wieland,
2015)
You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and
speak of the scientific foundations of morality.
Albert Einstein(Goodreads.com, 2015)
While it is important to keep a firm hold on scientific beliefs, in the case of
Mitochondrial Eve it reminds scientists how important it is for us to also consider things from a
faithful and hopefully idealistic perspective that goes hand in hand with religion, as it was the
basis with which the study was founded and published, as such we have been able to easily
trace lineage, disease and a common goal for humankind. An answer.
Mitochondria have done a great deal to unite the past and present by helping us
recognize our lineage, the value of genetics and a possible theory of creation. The scientists
involved worked toward a common goal, and while their research may have been flawed, it to
underwent a mutation. The mutation simply was, the addition of new information. Between
the coding of its unique ring like structure or the heritability of its genome Mitochondrial Eve
deserves all of the

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