XPost: sci.military.moderated   
   From: hrubin@stat.purdue.edu   
      
   In article <406f1435.322859865@news.eircom.net>,   
   Russell Wallace  wrote:   
   >On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 13:40:13 +1200, Rupert Boleyn   
   > wrote:   
      
   >>That's just plain wrong. Sperm cells have a _lot_ of mitochondria -   
   >>they're what provide a cell with energy, and sperm use a lot of energy   
   >>wriggling around. However, for some reason (possibly that they're   
   >>'worn out', last I heard no-one really really knows) the sperm's   
   >>mitochondria are flagged with a marker that says to a cell's clean-up   
   >>machinery 'for disposal'.   
      
   >The reason is that otherwise the two sets of mitochondria would fight   
   >to the death, weakening the cell. (There's a plant species that fails   
   >to do this with their chloroplasts, with this result.)   
      
   While they are so flagged, there is a positive probability   
   that some mitochondrial DNA will be interchanged with the   
   egg mitochondria before the disposal.  There are know cases   
   of people having diseases due to mitochondrial DNA which   
   could only have come from the father.   
   --   
   This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views   
   are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.   
   Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University   
   hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558   
      
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