From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 31 2002 - 16:21:52 MDT
CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
I wrote:
>differences in the mtDNA
>of the oocytes (my next project) could cause variation between siblings
with
>the same mother
Well, good luck, but mtDNA transmission has been studied in some detail and
chimerism is relatively rare. It would have to be nearly universal to knock
out the genetic signal, and it's certainly not that.
### Can you point me to some references to the "studies in some detail"?
AFAIK, some extent of heteroplasmy (which is different from the chimerism of
nuclear genomes) is present in *all* human cells, including the oocytes.
This does result in differences in mtDNA of siblings, almost always. What is
not known, is to what extent this low-level heteroplasmy is amplified during
embryogenesis and postnatal life, and a detailed analysis of the mutational
burden of mtDNA in human ova, compared to the women who produced the ova,
should help to improve our understanding.
Rafal
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