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Article #69Re: A Common Female Ancestor for Everyone
From: William L. Sebok
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1983 00:21
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1983 00:21
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> All living people (or at least ~99% of them) have a single common female
> ancestor on their purely maternal line. ...
>
> This result is based on comparisons of human mitochondrial DNA taken from
> very diverse populations all over the world. Mitochondrial DNA is passed
> along solely (i.e., asexually) by females to their offspring. The mutation
> rate for this process is very roughly known, and this together with delicate
> measurements of differences between two individuals' mitochondrial DNA, allows
> the determination of the interval since they shared a common pure female line
> ancestor.
Could this trick be used on the Y chromosome to estimate the time back a single
common ancestor on the purely paternal line? Any biologists or geneticists
out there?
--
Bill Sebok Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site astrovax.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!astrovax!wls From: wls@astrovax.UUCP (William L. Sebok) Newsgroups: net.roots,net.women,net.flame,net.misc,net.religion Subject: Re: A Common Female Ancestor for Everyone Message-ID: <118@astrovax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Nov-83 19:21:32 EST Article-I.D.: astrovax.118 Posted: Thu Nov 10 19:21:32 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 07:50:01 EST References: <115@astrovax.UUCP> Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics Lines: 17