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A young man wants to determine if he is a descendant of Henry of Navarre and Eleanor of Aquitainetwo of his favorite historical characters. He sends a cheek swab to a DTC company and is offered a choice (due to funding): The company can assess either the sequence of the man's Y chromosome or his mitochondrial DNA. Which should he choose?

User Farihah
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Answer:

He should get his mitochondrial haplotype sequenced, given the genetic variation in mitochondrial sequences compared to Y chromosomes.

Step-by-step explanation:

A haplotype is a group of genes within an organism that was inherited together from a single parent. The word "haplotype" is derived from the word "haploid," which describes cells with only one set of chromosomes, and from the word "genotype," which refers to the genetic makeup of an organism.

Genetic variation is a term used to describe the variation in the DNA sequence in each of our genomes. Genetic variation is what makes us all unique, whether in terms of hair color, skin color or even the shape of our faces.

The typical metazoan mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a double-stranded circular DNA molecule, which encodes a conserved set of 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) plus the two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes.

This, together with other special characteristics such as faster evolutionary rates than nuclear genes, presumed maternal inheritance, and absence of recombination makes mitochondrial DNAs one of the most popular targets for population genetics studies and accurate identification.

User Tiago Duarte
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