Mitochondrial genomes are not uniform across cells of the body as previously believed, but vary between different tissue types, according to a study published online today (March 3) inNature.

The findings may affect forensics and the search for biomarkers, both of which utilize mitochondrial DNA.There’s more than one mitochondrial genome present in each one of us and there are variations from tissue to tissue , which may have implications in embryogenesis. It’s unclear why mtDNA is so variable. One reason may be that mitochondria have a higher mutation rate than nuclear DNA

Read more:  http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57199/