MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MITOCHONDRIA AND MAMMALIAN FERTILIZATION - IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORIES ON HUMAN-EVOLUTION

In vertebrates, inheritance of mitochondria is thought to be predomina ntly maternal, and mitochondrial DNA analysis has become a standard ta xonomic tool. In accordance with the prevailing view of strict materna l inheritance, many sources assert that during fertilization, the sper m tail, with its mitochondria, gets excluded from the embryo. This is incorrect. In the majority of mammals-including humans-the midpiece mi tochondria can be identified in the embryo even though their ultimate fate is unknown, The ''missing mitochondria'' story seems to have surv ived-and proliferated-unchallenged in a time of contention between hyp otheses of human origins, because it supports the ''African Eve'' mode l of recent radiation of Homo sapiens out of Africa. We will discuss t he infiltration of this mistake into concepts of mitochondrial inherit ance and human evolution.