Genetics and Human Evolution

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in tracing human evolution. The paper explains that mtDNA is maternal, and non-recombinant, making it a useful tool for looking back at ancestral lines and tracing them to the first modern human. The paper considers the two hypothesis for this: the African replacement hypothesis and the multi-regional hypothesis.

From the Paper:

"Reconstructing human evolution is now done using genetic markers on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to trace the relationships and origins of human populations. Because all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited through the maternal cytoplasm variations in mtDNA provide evidence of maternal lineage. There is no DNA recombination occurring in mtDNA so the only changes from one mtDNA to the next are due to mutations in each sequence derived from a common ancestor. Polymorphisms are common in the non-coding regions of mtDNA with an estimated..."

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