[Fwd: [ArchTheoMeth] genes and languages--Kurds and Georgians]

[Lars Henrik Mathiesen]

> Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 17:00:52 -0500
> From: "anthony.appleyard at umist.ac.uk" <anthony.appleyard at UMIST.AC.UK>

> Sorry about this diversion into biology, but: They say that mtDNA comes
> from the mother only. But I read that a spermatozoon has a few mitochondria
> strapped round the base of its tail to give it power to swim. If so, how
> often at fertilization does mtDNA from those mitochondria from the father,
> get into the new individual? If so, that may upset studies based on mtDNA
> types.

I just looked it up in a human biology textbook. In normal
fertilization, the sperm doesn't penetrate the egg cell as such ---
the membranes of the sperm head and the oocyte merge to let the sperm
nucleus inside, but the tail and its mitochondria are left outside.

I doubt that anything viable results if those parts of the sperm do
enter the oocyte, so the answer to the question is probably 'never.'

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn at diku.dk> (Humour NOT marked)