Mitochondrial DNA is exclusively maternally inherited: Prof. Douglas C. Wallace

Prof. Douglas C. Wallace showed how Mitochondrial DNA variation can be used to trace and reconstruct the origin and migration of our female ancestors.

Hyderabad: Prof. Douglas C. Wallace, Director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenetic Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA, delivered the distinguished lecture titled, ‘Mitochondrial Medicine in the Pandemic Era’ under the University of Hyderabad ‘Distinguished Lecture Series’ at the Life Sciences auditorium.

He showed how mitochondrial DNA variation can be used to trace and reconstruct the origin and migration of our female ancestors and emphasized the importance of mitochondrial energy homeostasis and its link to disease outcomes.

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Prof Wallace is a pioneer in the area of human mitochondrial genetics and is also an evolutionary biologist. Prof. Wallace and his colleagues founded the field of mitochondrial genetics more than 35 years ago. The first of his many landmark findings has been that mitochondrial DNA is exclusively maternally inherited.

His visit laid the foundation for a collaborative work funded by the GATES Foundation between his group at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Prof. Naresh Babu V. Sepuri’s group at the Department of Biochemistry, UoH, to understand the mitochondrial DNA variation in the context of Covid-19 infection severity.