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> Mitochondria are purely a maternal gift. Sperm do not pass them on; only a mother’s egg does. Some species' sperm do pass mitochondria successfully. Human s
by conceit 11y ago
> Mitochondria are purely a maternal gift. Sperm do not pass them on; only a mother’s egg does.
Some species' sperm do pass mitochondria successfully. Human sperm passes mitochondrial dna, but the egg kills it off.
- ergothus 11y agoI think you meant the reverse Re: humans. I'm interested in this though: do you know any examples off the top of your head where the male passes on mitochondria? I thought the primary reasoning is that sperm is little more than DNA with a tail and engine attached. (poetically speaking)
- conceit 11y agoWhat reverse? No, I don't know.
- ergothus 11y agoAh...I misunderstood your comment and I misunderstood how it works. I thought human sperm had no mitochondria. Turns out that is dramatically not the case, but the sperm's mitochondria is killed off by the egg, and that's exactly what you said. I had thought you were saying the sperm had mitochondria and the egg killed THE EGGs mitochondria off. My mistake.