Nuclear DNA is DNA contained within a nucleus of eukaryotic organisms. In most cases it encodes more of the genome than the mitochondrial DNA and is passed sexually rather than matrilineally. Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and most viruses). ... In cell biology, the nucleus (from Latin nucleus or nuculeus, kernel) is found in all eukaryotic cells that contains most of the cells genetic material. ... Kingdoms Animalia - Animals Fungi Plantae - Plants Protista A eukaryote (also spelled eucaryote) is an organism with complex cells, in which the genetic material is organized into membrane-bound nuclei. ... In biology the genome of an organism is the whole hereditary information of an organism that is encoded in the DNA (or, for some viruses, RNA). ... Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA, or less popularly, mDNA) is DNA which is not located in the nucleus of the cell but in the mitochondria. ...
Unlike most of the cell, the function of which is defined by the nuclearDNA, the mitochondria have their own DNA and are assumed to have evolved separately.
Human mitochondrial DNA consists of 5-10 rings of DNA and appears to carry 16,569 base pairs with 37 genes (13 proteins, 22 tRNAs and two rRNAs) which are concerned with the production of proteins involved in cellular respiration.
The existence of mitochondrial DNA also supports the endosymbiotic theory, which suggests that eukaryotic cells first appeared when a prokaryotic cell was absorbed into another cell without being digested.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is DNA which is not located in the nucleus of the cell but in the mitochondria.
Mitochondrial DNA consists of 5-10 rings of DNA and appears to carry 16,500 base pairs with 37 genes (13 proteins, 22tRNAs and two rRNA) which are concerned with the production of proteins involved in respiration.
The fact that mitochondrial DNA is always (or almost always) maternally inherited enables researchers to trace uterine lineage far back in time.