What is the difference between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA?

Question

I need a fairly in depth answer if possible.

Answer 1

Nuclear DNA is the DNA you acquired from your mother and father. It is not an exact duplicate of either of them, but a general mixing. Some chromosomes may be pretty close to your father's or mother's, but many will have gone through crossing over during meiosis and are therefore mixed.

Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA contained within the mitochondria of your cells. It is a direct transfer from the mother to the offspring and none of the father's is included. This DNA does not change or mix from one generation to the other; it should be an exact replicate unlike the nuclear DNA. On a practical level, for example, this type of DNA is used for tracking turtle generations to see which nesting beaches different turtles are going to. It has worked fairly well to prove the natal homing hypothesis in various kinds of sea turtles.

Hope this helps. Just graduated with a B.S. in Biology and wrote a paper in genetics on this about three years ago. I'm a little rusty, but genetics was quite possibly my favorite class!

Cheers,
Laura

Answer 2

When someone mentions human DNA, what do you think of? If you know a little about the topic, perhaps you think of the 46 chromosomes that inhabit the nucleus of almost every cell that comprises your body. These chromosomes hold the vast bulk of genetic information that you've inherited from your parents.

Outside the nucleus, but still within the cell, lie mitochondria. Mitochondria are tiny structures that help cells in a number of ways, including producing the energy that cells need. Each mitochondrion -- there are about 1,700 in every human cell -- includes an identical loop of DNA about 16,000 base pairs long containing 37 genes. In contrast, nuclear DNA consists of three billion base pairs and an estimated 70,000 genes. (This estimate has been revised upward several times since the announcement that the human genome had been decoded, and likely will be again.)

Answer 3

I believe Nuclear DNA is a mix of both father and mother's DNA. Whereas Mitochondrial is derive mainly from your mother's side. That's as much as I know, and that was from a few months ago, check wikipedia for more- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_DNA

Answer 4

think about it it. Mitochondria are the some of the smallest particules in the Blood cell itself, they are small power houses in teh cell that help with someof the most basic processes in the cell, to cellurlar respiration and waste removal etc. Nuclear DNA is the study of all of the Chemical reactions done in the cell life, Nuclear is more of process that acutall cellular part such as the Mitochondria