DNA: Y-DNA & mtDNA NOTES

Y-DNA

Notes on the human Y chromosome:

The first Y chromosome originated about 166 million years ago.
The human Y chromosome has about 58,000,000 base pairs.
Contains 86 genes that code for 23 different proteins.
Is inherited unchanged from father to son, except for rare mutations.
About half of the world's population, all of the males, have a Y chromosome lineage to a single man living in Africa about 60,000 years ago. He is every man's 2000th-great grandfather.
Because dominant males usually had more children and lower-status males had fewer to none (or only daughters), more ancient Y DNA lineages have gone extinct.
The Y chromosome mutates more rapidly than mitochondrial DNA, and typically is passed down to later generations with the same surname, so is very useful for genealogical purposes (within the past 1000 years).

BIRTH YEARS FOR MILLER PATRILINEAGE:

Human mtDNA has 16,569 base pairs.
Is inherited unchanged from mother daughters.
Is inherited by sons & daughters but only daughters can pass to descendants.
Every living person on Earth has a mtDNA lineage going back to one woman living in Africa about 170,000 years ago. The mtDNA lines of other ancient females are all extinct now.
The mitochondrial mutation rate is slower than Y-DNA, so there are fewer differences to compare people to, except in the long term of many thousands of years, so isn't very useful for genealogical purposes.

MATRILINEAGE: