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About mitogroup ancestry
The Female Line analysis is based on an examination of your mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from mother to child. You inherited your mitochondrial DNA from your mother, who in turn inherited it from her mother, who inherited it from her mother, and so on. Due to its unusual mode of inheritance, you can use mitochondrial DNA to discover how closely related you are to any other person in the female line (even to members of other species!).
Unlike the DNA found on autosomal chromosomes, where only small pieces can be traced back to particular ancient ancestors, mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother in one piece. In the vast majority of cases, the mitochondrial DNA of a mother and her children will be exactly the same. Very rarely, the mitochondrial DNA of a mother and her child will differ, usually only at a single point – the result of a mutation.
If no mutations had ever occurred in mitochondrial DNA throughout the ages, then all humans would carry identical mitochondrial DNA. In reality, the gradual accumulation of mutations in mitochondrial DNA throughout human history makes it a very useful tool to trace a person’s ancestry through the female line. Your mitochondrial DNA will typically be identical to that of your ancestors through the female line for the first 10 generations or so. However, the further you go back through this line of ancestors, the more differences you will find between your mitochondrial DNA and that of your ancestors (and their other female line descendants).
Ultimately, every human can trace his or her mitochondrial DNA through the female line (a long chain of mothers to a single female ancestor, named “Mitochondrial Eve”, who lived in Africa some 190 thousand years ago. The image above represents the genealogical tree that links all humans to Mitochondrial Eve through the female line. The full genealogical tree can be broken down into subgroups of especially closely related mitochondrial DNA, that we call mitogroups. These mitogroups are like extended families within the full genealogical tree. People whose mitochondrial DNA belongs to the same mitogroup have a common ancestor in the female line that is much more recent than mitochondrial Eve. They are much more closely related through the female line than people who belong to different mitogroups.
