The Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell (Mitochondrial Eve)

In LV3 Biology, our class has been investigating the Human Evolutionary scale and we are now focusing on a subtopic of Human Dispersal. Within this section of our learning, we learned a bit about the Mitochondrial Eve, which is basically a theory about Human-kinds's common ancestor.  We were set the task to look at an article and summarise it. Here are my findings. 

Mitochondrial Eve

The discovery of Mitochondrial Eve was by:

Cann, R. L., Stoneking, M., & Wilson, A. C. (1987). Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature, 325(6099), 31-36.

In the scientific journal titled Nature, scientists Rebecca Louise Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan Charles Wilson compared Mitochondrial DNA from various Human Populations from around the world. From these comparisons, they determined that all human populations (that they studied) had a common ancestor in Africa around 100,000-200,000 years ago. This individual was later called "Mitochondrial Eve" (not to be confused with the Biblical Eve). Within this article, the author describes the particular composition of the mtDNA (Mitochondria DNA), explaining the various areas in detail. This is important for the reader because they may not necessarily understand all of the scientific jargon or explanations used. It explains that Mitochondrial DNA is different from the regular DNA most people have heard of. This DNA doesn't change within the chromosome when passed down from mother to child aside from mutations. After this, the authors discuss the fact that sequencing was used to determine migration patterns of some human populations within Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and more. They were able to trace the lineage back to one individual - Mitochondrial Eve. The article discusses the important details about Mitochondrial DNA and the impacts it has on genetic lineage. The scientists concluded that this single lineage has outlasted others of the past, and has continued to flourish. Although changing only through mutations, Mitochondrial DNA is likely to have expanded and be within every modern individual's DNA still to this day.