dna analysis - mtDNA

mitochondrial dna

mitochondria are cell structures found in all human cells - energy, single mitochondria contains several loops of dna all of which are involved in energy generation, dna is circular so not as prone to degradation as chromosomal dna, 1000s of mtDNW, useful when nuclear dna is significantly degraded

inherited

its only maternally inherited, only passes from mother to children male can have it just dont pass it

disadvantage

that individual of same maternal lineage are indistinguishable by mtDNA technology, sequence dna, two regions of mtdna are highly varabile in humans, designated hypervariable region 1 and hypervaraiable region 2, in the regions the nucleotide sequence varies considerably from one individual to next

mtdna vs str

not as discriminatory as str typing, slower