Several decades ago, research into human evolution and the coalesence

Last updated: 7/8/2022

Several decades ago, research into human evolution and the coalescence theory when applied to human genomes resulted in dubbing a woman who lived long ago "Mitochondrial Eve." What does this mean? Mitochondrial Eve was the first human woman. Each gene in humanity can be traced back to a single gene copy that existed in one of our ancestors. "Mitochondrial Eve" is the woman whose mitochondria was the ancestral mitochondrial copy for all surviving humans today. Each gene in humanity can be traced back to a single gene copy that existed in one of our ancestors. "Mitochondrial Eve" is the woman whose genes were all the ancestral gene copy for all surviving humans today. "Mitochondrial Eve" was the first eukaryotic organism to capture the bacteria that eventually became the mitochondria.