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KarlDeutscheMarx t1_iv18s7k wrote

Reply to comment by scottish_beekeeper in Why don't we have Neandertal mitochondrial DNA? by nodeciapalabras

So the only way mitochondria change through generations is via mutation?

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GOU_FallingOutside t1_iv1phfi wrote

Correct, and possibly not even then. The mitochondrial genome is highly conserved — functional defects would be catastrophic for an organism.

EDIT: That is, there’s enough variation for it to serve as a “molecular clock,” but there’s not a lot of tolerance for error. It would be more accurate for me to say most regions of the genome are conserved.

(Also, not a geneticist, so I’d be happy to be corrected by experts.)

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