RPM and Kambiz comment on a paper which argues for the utility of mtDNA in phylogeography.
Remember,
- there is lots of mtDNA that is easy to extract because there are so many mitochondria within eukaryotic cells
- it mutates fast, building up a lot of genetic variation, in a neutral matter (i.e., perfect “clock”)
- it is uniparental, passed from mother to daughter, making the coalescent model congenially tractable
Comments are closed.