>these results suggest that under rare circumstances (in a few sorts of mitochondrial disease), mitochondria can be transmitted paternally. "Although biparenta

>these results suggest that under rare circumstances (in a few sorts of mitochondrial disease), mitochondria can be transmitted paternally. "Although biparental inheritance of mtDNA and heteroplasmy coincided with disease symptoms in some of the individuals studied by Luo et al., the authors’ data do not demonstrate a causal link with disease. In fact, we cannot be certain that the study participants have mitochondrial disease, because no specific examinations to confirm this diagnosis are reported. Further study is needed to identify more cases of potential paternal mtDNA inheritance, and to determine the functional consequences of such heteroplasmy." So no, it is not definitively linked with mitochondrial disease. If anything, the article suggests that the inheritance may be due to an abnormality in the host DNA: "Previous work has shown that mitophagy, the process by which cells ‘eat’ their own mitochondria, has a role in the selective elimination of paternal mitochondria. Given our rapidly expanding knowledge of mammalian mitophagy in vivo16, these rare instances of paternal mtDNA transmission might be attributed to defective mitochondrial turnover. The inheritance pattern of paternal mtDNA in Luo and colleagues’ study suggests that a yet unidentified gene on one of the autosomes (non-sex chromosomes) is involved in eliminating paternal mitochondria."