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SweetBasil_ t1_iv1b5ch wrote

Reply to comment by angelicism in Why don't we have Neandertal mitochondrial DNA? by nodeciapalabras

On average a mitochondrial sequence will have a single mutation every several hundred years. So exact matches are common if it's within ~20 generations or so.

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angelicism t1_iv1by71 wrote

So matching mitochondrial DNA doesn't actually mean much in the context of forensics then, because you could also match with your 13th cousin 6 times removed and for all you know there are 17 of them in your village?

(I am zero surprised a TV show is wrong about science, by the way.)

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SweetBasil_ t1_iv1d0kn wrote

When you use DNA to match to a suspect, you usually use short tandem repeat (STR) length patterns in nuclear DNA, which change more frequently than nuclear DNA by several orders of magnitude.

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angelicism t1_iv1g8e2 wrote

There are multiple episodes specifically about matching mitochondrial DNA with the suspect's mother, which was my specific question. :)

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SweetBasil_ t1_iv1h3y7 wrote

should definitely get a nice match with a mother, but i wouldn't put anyone on death row based on that alone :)

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