Authors
Garima Jindal
Abstract
Many years ago, when the population was being increased day by day, then the people started to migrate from their places and lived to another places. Before some decades, many scientists and researchers wanted to know how the evolution took place and where the people migrated from their origin place. For this they studied the histories and different methods. After many researches and studies, the molecular biology was used for the purpose to know the human evolution and their migration. In the molecular biology, Mitochondrial DNA is considered as the best method as it has many unique features such as maternal inheritance, lack of recombination, several copies of mtDNA in mitochondria, and high mutation rate as compared to the nuclear DNA. And mtDNA is resistant to degrade and more stable in unfavorable conditions. This paper discuss about the review of many author and researchers about the human evolution and their migration through the analysis of Mitochondrial DNA. Keywords: Mitochondrial DNA, Evolution, Migration, Molecular Biology
Introduction
It is believed that the homo genus are originated in Africa. The Homo erectus group was migrated from Africa to another place such as Europe and Asia within the one or two million years. Homo erectus changed their appearance and character because of the different reasons. Homo erectus is called by the name as archaic by anthropologist. They involved Neandertals who were living in Middle East and Europe form 150, 000 to 28, 000 years.
The process of evolution is very difficult and has the long history as it started from the first appearance of the human and being continued today. Before some decades, there was only one way of studying the evolution and migration of human that is uncovered skeletal remains. In last two decades, the anthropologist gained various new tools, in which molecular biology is one of them. In the molecular biology, proteins like biomolecules’ history and evolution were analyzed but they were not enough to give the precise result regarding evolution. After that the researchers insight for the DNA. The main key of the human evolution is the changes in the gene pool and through the study of genetic origin of populations, we are able to understand the population relationship as well as the alteration in the gene with the space and time. Actually, DNA is a biomolecule which reveals the history record of the evolution of life on earth. Most of the DNA is located in nucleus of the cell, small quantity of the DNA is present also in another cell organelle that is mitochondria.
Mitochondria plays a significant role in cell energetics, apoptosis, ageing and other pathological conditions. It also contains DNA, is called as Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Mitochondrial DNA is one of those tools which is used to determine the origin of population because it has the high evolutionary importance. For the study of human evolution through mitochondrial DNA, the best ways to collect the samples are museum specimens, fossil remains and archaeological finds as they can provide the evidence related to their origin and migration processes by comparing it with the modern mtDNA. In the collection of ancient mitochondrial DNA, the researchers face the problems related to the contamination and authenticity of DNA. In spite of having these issues, there is a settled criteria and platforms for collecting authentic ancient DNA (Nesheva, 2014).
References
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| APA Style | Jindal, G. (2019). Role of Mitochondrial DNA in Human Evolution and Migration. Academic Journal of Anthropological Studies, 02(01), 01-05. |
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