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Article: Mitochondrial DNA Analysis
- Article from:
- World of Forensic Science
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Mitochondrial DNA Analysis
In human cells,
DNA
is found in both the nucleus and the mitochondria. The mitochondrion is an organelle responsible for the molecular products that provide the energy to the cell. There is a single nucleus in human cells and it contains two copies of DNA, one originating from the father and one from the mother. In contrast, there may be hundreds or thousands of mitochondria in human cells and the DNA in a single mitochondrion may be copied numerous times. Nuclear DNA is much longer than mitochondrial DNA, also written mtDNA, however the fact that there are so many more copies of mtDNA makes it extremely useful in cases in which there is only a small sample ...