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com/view/115a10NTg0M/MITOCHONDRIAL_EVE_powerpoint_ppt_prese
ntation
Mitochondrial Eve
Interpretation

Mitochondrial Eve
Haplogroup Modern humans

Possible time oforigin

Possible place oforigin
Ancestor
Descendants
Definingmutations

152,000 - 234,000 BP [1]

East Africa
n/a
Mitochondrial macro-haplogroupsL0, L1, and L5
None

In the field of human genetics, Mitochondrial Eve refers to the matrilineal "MRCA"
(most recent commonancestor). In other words, she was the woman from whom all living hu
mans today descend, on their mother's side,and through the mothers of those mothers and s

o on, back until all lines converge on one person. Because allmitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is
generally passed from mother to offspring without recombination, all mitochondrialDNA (mtD
NA) in every living person is directly descended from hers by definition. Mitochondrial Eve is t
he femalecounterpart of Y-chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor,
although they lived thousandsof years apart.
Each ancestor (of people now living) in the line back to the matrilineal MRCA had female con
temporaries such assisters, female cousins, etc. and some of these female contemporaries
may have descendants living now (with oneor more males in their descendancy line). But no
ne of the female contemporaries of the "Mitochondrial Eve" hasdescendants living now in an
unbroken female line.
Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived around 200,000 years ago,[2] most likely in East
Africa,[3] when Homosapiens sapiens ("anatomically modern humans") were developing as a
population distinct from other human sub-species.
Mitochondrial Eve lived much earlier than the out of Africa migration that is thought to have o
ccurred between95,000 to 45,000 BP.[4] The dating for 'Eve' was a blow to the multiregional h
ypothesis, and a boost to thehypothesis that modern humans originated relatively recently in
Africa and spread from there, replacing more"archaic" human populations such as Neandert
hals. As a result, the latter hypothesis is now the dominant one.

Contents
1 Female and mitochondrial ancestry
2 Common fallacies
2.1 Not the only woman
2.2 Not a contemporary of "Adam"
2.3 Not the most recent ancestor shared by all humans
3 Implications of dating and placement of Eve
4 In popular science
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Female and mitochondrial ancestry

Further information: Genetic genealogy (matrilineal), Mitochondrial DNA, and Human mitoch
ondrial molecular clock

Through random drift or selectionthe female-lineage will trace backto a single female, such a
sMitochondrial Eve

Simplified Human mitochondrialphylogeny

Without a DNA sample, it is not possible to reconstruct the complete genetic makeup (genom
e) of any individualwho died very long ago. By analysing descendants' DNA, however, parts
of ancestral genomes are estimated byscientists. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Ychromosome DNA are commonly used to trace ancestry in thismanner. mtDNA is generally p
assed un-mixed from mothers to children of both sexes, along the maternal line, ormatrilineall
y.[5][6] Matrilineal descent goes back to our mothers, to their mothers, until all female lineages
converge.
Branches are identified by one or more unique markers which give a mitochondrial "DNA sig
nature" or "haplotype" (e.g. the CRS is a haplotype). Each marker is a DNA basepair that has resulted from an SNP mutation. Scientistssort mitochondrial DNA results into m
ore or less related groups, with more or less recent common ancestors. Thisleads to the con
struction of a DNA family tree where the branches are in biological terms clades, and the co

mmonancestors such as Mitochondrial Eve sit at branching points in this tree. Major branche
s are said to define ahaplogroup (e.g. CRS belongs to haplogroup H), and large branches co
ntaining several haplogroups are called"macro-haplogroups".
The mitochondrial clade which Mitochondrial Eve defines is the species Homo sapiens sapie
ns itself, or at least thecurrent population or "chronospecies" as it exists today. In principle, e
arlier Eves can also be defined going beyondthe species, for example one who is ancestral t
o both modern humanity and Neanderthals, or, further back, an"Eve" ancestral to all member
s of genus Homo and chimpanzees in genus Pan. According to current nomenclature,Mitoch
ondrial Eve's haplogroup was within mitochondrial haplogroup L because this macrohaplogroup contains allsurviving human mitochondrial lineages today.
The variation of mitochondrial DNA between different people can be used to estimate the tim
e back to a commonancestor, such as Mitochondrial Eve. This works because, along any par
ticular line of descent, mitochondrial DNAaccumulates mutations at the rate of approximately
one every 3,500 years.[7][8][9] A certain number of these newvariants will survive into modern ti
mes and be identifiable as distinct lineages. At the same time some branches,including even
very old ones, come to an end, when the last family in a distinct branch has no daughters.
Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor for all modern humans. W
henever one of thetwo most ancient branch lines dies out, the MRCA will move to a more rec
ent female ancestor, always the mostrecent mother to have more than one daughter with livin
g maternal line descendants alive today. The number ofmutations that can be found distingui
shing modern people is determined by two criteria: firstly and most obviously,the time back to
her, but secondly and less obviously by the varying rates at which new branches have come i
ntoexistence and old branches have become extinct. By looking at the number of mutations
which have beenaccumulated in different branches of this family tree, and looking at which g
eographical regions have the widestrange of least related branches, the region where Eve liv
ed can be proposed.
The date when Mitochondrial Eve lived is estimated by determining the MRCA of a sample of
mtDNA lineages. In1980, Brown first proposed that modern humans possessed a mitochondr
ial common ancestor that may have livedas recently as 180 kya. In 1987, Cann et al. suggest
ed that mitochondrial Eve may have lived between 140-280 kya.

Common fallacies
Not the only woman

One of the misconceptions of mitochondrial Eve is that since all women alive today descende
d in a direct unbrokenfemale line from her that she was the only woman alive at the time.[10][11]
Nuclear DNA studies indicate that the sizeof the ancient human population never dropped be
low tens of thousands. There may have been many otherwomen alive at Eve's time with desc
endants alive today, but sometime in the past, those lines of descent includedat least one ma
le, who do not pass on their mother's mitochondrial DNA, thereby breaking the line of descen
t. Bycontrast, Eve's lines of descent to each person alive today includes precisely one purely
matrilineal line.[10]

Not a contemporary of "Adam"

Sometimes mitochondrial Eve is assumed to have lived at the same time as Y-chromosomal
Adam, perhaps evenmeeting and mating with him. Like mitochondrial "Eve", Y-chromosomal
"Adam" probably lived in Africa; however,this "Eve" lived much earlier than this "Adam"
perhaps some 50,000 to 80,000 years earlier.[12]

Not the most recent ancestor shared by all humans

Main article: Most recent common ancestor
Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor, not the most recent com
mon ancestor (MRCA).Since the mtDNA is inherited maternally and recombination is either r
are or absent, it is relatively easy to track theancestry of the lineages back to a MRCA; howe
ver this MRCA is valid only when discussing mitochondrial DNA. Anapproximate sequence fr
om newest to oldest can list various important points in the ancestry of modern humanpopula

tions:
The Human MRCA. All humans alive today share a surprisingly recent common ancestor, per

haps even within thelast 5,000 years, even for people born on different continents.[13]
The Identical ancestors point. Just a few thousand years before the most recent single ances
tor shared by all livinghumans was the time at which all humans who were then alive either le
ft no descendants alive today or werecommon ancestors to all humans alive today. In other w
ords, "each presentday human has exactly the same set ofgenealogical ancestors" alive at the "Identical ancesto

rs point" in time. This is far more recent than MitochondrialEve.[13]

"Y-Chromosomal Adam", the most recent male-line common ancestor of all living men, was

much more recent thanMitochondrial Eve, but is also likely to have been long before the Ident
ical ancestors point.
Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent female-line common ancestor of all living people.

Implications of dating and placement of Eve

Further information: Out of Africa hypothesis, Multiregional evolution hypothesis, Recent Afric
an origin of modernhumans
Initially there was a lot of resistance against the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis. This resistanc
e was due, in part, tothe popularity of the Multiregional Evolution hypothesis amongst some l
eading paleoanthropologists such as MilfordWolpoff. This prevailing theory held that the evol
ution of humanity from the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.5 millionyears BP to the present da
y has been within a single, continuous human species, evolving worldwide to modernHomo s
apiens. More resistance came from those who argued that there was too little time between
Homo erectusand modern Homo sapiens to allow for another new species, and others who a
rgued that for regional evolutionfrom archaic hominin forms into modern ones. Consequently,
the finding of a recent maternal ancestor for allhumans in Africa was very controversial.
Cann, Stoneking & Wilson (1987)'s placement of a relatively small population of humans in s
ub-saharan Africa, lentappreciable support for the recent Out of Africa hypothesis. The curre
nt concept places between 1,500 and 16,000effectively interbreeding individuals (census 4,5

00 to 48,000 individuals) within Tanzania and proximal regions.Later, Tishkoff et al.

(2009) using data from many loci (not just mitochondrial DNA) extrapolated that the AngolaNamibia border region near the Atlantic Ocean is likely to be near the geographical point of o
rigin of modern humangenetic diversity. In its relatively southern origin proposals, this autoso
mal study was considered by the authors tobe broadly consistent with a previous mitochondri
al DNA studies, including one by some of the same authors whichassociated the origins of mi
tochondrial haplogroups L0 and L1 with "click languages" in southern and easternAfrica.[14]
To some extent the studies have already revealed that the presence of archaic homo sapiens
in Northwest Africa(Jebel Irhoud) were not likely part of the contiguous modern human popul
ation. In addition, the older remains atSkhul and Qafzeh are also unlikely part of the constrict
human population, evidence currently indicates humansexpanded in the region no earlier tha
n 90,000 BP.[citation needed] Tishkoff argues that humans might have migratedto the Levant before
90 Ka, but this colony did not persist in SW Asia.[citation needed] Better defined is the geneticsepar
ation among Neanderthals, Flores hobbit, Java man, and Peking man. In 1999 Krings et al.,
eliminatedproblems in molecular clocking postulated by Nei, 1992 when it was found the mtD
NA sequence for the sameregion was substantially different from the MRCA relative to any h
uman sequence. Currently there are 6 fullysequenced Neanderthal mitogenomes, each fallin
g within a genetic cluster less diverse than that for humans, andmitogenome analysis in hum
ans has statistically markedly reduced the TMRCA range so that it no longer overlapswith Ne
andertal/human split times. Of all the non-African hominids European archaics most closely r
esembledhumans, indicating a wider genetic divide with other hominids.
Since the multiregional evolution hypothesis (MREH) revolved around a belief that regional m
odern humanpopulations evolved in situ in various regions (Europe: Neandertals to Europea
ns, Asia: Homo erectus to EastAsians, Australia: Sumatran erectines to indigenous Australia
ns), these results demonstrated that a pure MREHhypothesis could not explain one important
genetic marker.

In popular science

Newsweek reported on Mitochondrial Eve based on the Cann et al. study in January 1988, u
nder a heading of"Scientists Explore a Controversial Theory About Man's Origins". The editio

n sold a record number of copies.[15]

The Seven Daughters of Eve presents the theory of human mitochondrial genetics to a gener

al audience.
In River Out of Eden, Richard Dawkins discusses human ancestry in the context of a river of

genes and shows thatMitochondrial Eve is one of the many common ancestors we can trace
back to via different gene pathways.
The Discovery Channel produced a documentary entitled The Real Eve (or Where We Came
From in the UnitedKingdom), based on the book Out of Eden by Stephen Oppenheimer.

See also
Archaeogenetics
Macro-haplogroup L (mtDNA)

Last universal ancestor

Mitochondrial genome

Evolutionary bio

Haplogroup L0 (mtDNA)
tion
Coalescent theory
Eurasian Adam
Genealogical DNA test
Genetic genealogy
Human evolution
Human mitochondrial DNAhaplogr

Neutral theory of molecular evolu

Single origin hypothesis
Timeline of evolution
Timeline of human evolution
Y-chromosomal Aaron
Y-chromosomal Adam
Parasite Eve

oups

Evolutionary tree of Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups

Mitochondrial Eve (L)

L0

L1-6
L1 L2

L3
M
CZ D E G Q
C Z

L4 L5 L6
N

A S

R
B F

I W X Y

R0
HV
H V

pre-JT

JT
J

P
U
K