Can someone summarize the story of Mitochondrial Eve for me basically?
In DNA, mtDNA changes more slowly than yDNA. Both suffer changes due to radiation & chemicals in the environment, or changes caused when cells divide or re-combine. As mtDNA is received only from the mother, who got it from her mother, etc., if you can trace the mtDNA far enough back through time, you will eventually find the mother who was the Eve (or first person) to have that particular mtDNA. As the various authors explain when talking about Mitochondrial Eve, it doesn’t mean that she was the only woman alive. There were other women alive, but they were either the mother of a clan that died out, leaving no descendants (sometime from then until now) or was the Mitochondrial Eve of a different subclade, etc. One of the best books out there is “The Seven Daughters of Eve” by Bryan Sykes. Mr. Sykes book is non-technical and easy to read and follow. To sum up, Mitochondrial Eve is the first woman to have a particular DNA. Your own Mitochondrial Eve could have lived hundreds of years ago
