1. Are You a Descendant of Witches?
Dr. Shelli Carter

2. When Diana First Visits Matthew’s Lab
Chapter 13: Diana learns of Matthew’s research interests
“Mitochondrial DNA can help us to understand the history of a whole species” - Matthew Clairmont

3. First, what are Mitochondria?
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4. In mammals, mitochondria are inherited maternally
Biology. Provided by: Khan Academy. Located at License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. License Terms:

5. Paternal mitochondria
Sato, M., Sato, K. (2013). “Maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA by diverse mechanisms to eliminate paternal mitochondrial DNA”. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta- Molecular Cell Research. Vol. 1833, issue 8, August 2013, pp

6. Diana First Visits Matthew’s Lab
Chapter 13: Diana sees her first mtDNA sequence
“But what are the colored graphs?”-Diana Bishop
“They’re also genetic test results…. They tell us the story of her matrilineage.”-Matthew

7. Brightly Colored Hoops
“Structure of the human mitochondrial genome” derivative work: Shanel (talk)
Mitochondrial DNA de.svg: translation by Knopfkind; layout by jhc
(CC BY-SA 3.0).

8. What is mtDNA? Resilient Circular DNA Inside another organelle
Multiple copies
Some cells have 100s of mitochondrial genomes

9. Witches hide their DNA
Chapter 26: Matthew reveals Diana’s rooms at Oxford were broken into, likely looking for DNA samples
“My mother insisted that I clean my hairbrush before leaving for school each morning.” - Diana

10. Finding mtDNA Most cells Not found in RBCs or platelets
Degraded and old remains
More protected
Hair
nuclear DNA can only be obtained from hair follicles

11. How mtDNA can be used “Larger” relationships
6 main mitochondrial genomes in all eukaryotes
Female lineages
Forensics
First case: WTC remains

12. Female Lineages
"Mitochondrial DNA vs. nuclear DNA," by University of California Museum of Paleontology (CC BY-SA 3.0).

13. Clans Chapter 36: The Bishop lineage is a previously unknown clan
“Through a witch’s mitochondrial DNA, we can trace descent back to one of four women who were the female ancestors of every witch we’ve studied”. –Matthew
“Except you. You and Sarah aren’t descended from any of them.”-Marcus Whitmore

14. Human Regional Variation
Rishishwar L, Jordan IK. Implications of human evolution and admixture for mitochondrial replacement therapy. BMC Genomics. 2017;18:140. doi: /s  

15. Human Lineages

16. Clan Mothers
Sykes, B. (2001). The Seven Daughters of Eve. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. New York, NY.

17. Old clans Chapter 36: The Bishop clan is old
“Clan Heh is old—no matter which mitochondrial-clock theory you adhere to”. – Miriam Shephard

18. Molecular Clocks Mutation rates Coding vs. non-coding DNA
Highly variable regions

19. Mutation Rates and Dating Lineages
Soares, P; Ermini, L; Thomson, N; Mormina, M; Rito, T; Röhl, A; Salas, A; Oppenheimer, S; Macaulay, V; Richards, MB (June 2009), "Correcting for purifying selection: an improved human mitochondrial molecular clock", American Journal of Human Genetics, 84 (6): 740–59, PMC   ,PMID  , doi: /j.ajhg

20. Disappearing clans Chapter 36: Clan Heh is on the edge of extinction
“In either case it’s possible that without Diana’s issue Clan Heh will die out in this generation.”-Miriam

21. First a little math…
“What’s Your Number? Don’t Be Too Shocked if I’s Below 30%!” Retrieved from:

23. Disappearing Lineages
“MtDNA-MRCA-generations-Evolution.svg” by C. Rottensteiner (CC BY-SA 3.0).

24. The Twins…and Hope