apnaapan

chorus: “mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.”

mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are the small, circular chromosomes found inside mitochondria, the energy-giving structures within cells. each cell’s nucleus is surrounded by a fluid called the cytoplasm, which contains hundreds of thousands of mitochondria. while most genetic material, or DNA, is packaged within chromosomes in the nucleus, mtDNA is stored separately in the cytoplasm, representing a small fraction of the total DNA in cells.

“biological” siblings inherit 100% of their mtDNA exclusively from their mother.¹

in other words, my siblings and i received the exact same maternal cellular power source, without any paternal contribution or genetic shuffling or recombination.

said another way, my siblings and i received an identical copy of the exact same instruction manual that keeps our cells running and keeps us alive.

if we trace this trail back hundreds of thousands of years, through thousands of generations, the arithmetic of inheritance leads us to the fact that every living human today is the descendant of one woman: mitochondrial eve. geneticists who trace mtDNA mutations tell us that all modern humans share an unbroken mother-to-child line that converges on one single woman who lived somewhere in Africa, about two thousand years ago. they also caution us against assuming that she was the only woman alive at the time. she is simply the only woman from her era whose purely maternal line never broke.²

logically then, all the women living alongside mitochondrial eve also inherited mtDNA from a single maternal ancestor further back in time. meaning, “mitochondrial eve” is a title that changes over time.

following this genetic thread to its beginningpoint leads me, who is neither scientist nor geneticist, to the heartfelt conclusion that mtDNA is our closest objective proof that the world is indeed one big family.

i only stumbled across mtDNA because my wandering mind dawdles in funny places. this tidbit about mtDNA called out to me from somewhere far away as i was missing laughter with my brother and i followed that distant call. it gave me scientific language for what i had already known biologically: that my brother and i generate energy in the exact same way. in fact, we all generate energy the exact same way. laughing with my brother—like in the middle of getting paaasted³ by our parents, or making up words with random syllables, or making up songs with those made-up words, or exaggerating mannerisms only we would notice in one another—evidenced for me two truths.

first, there is only one greater energy-generating power than laughing. i mean the laughter that relents my body’s stiffness, loosens it to the ground, makes me fight peeing my pants and tears streaming down my face and saliva lunging out my mouth. i mean the kind of laughter i can beckon at memory and glance. the kind of laughter that throws a big middle finger to decorum and etiquette and embraces the uncouth and the unapologetic. that laughter. the one that makes me feel like i am dying, breathless and panting, but makes me feel so alive because i am finally chasing a breath.

second, there is no greater energy-generating power than laughing with one’s G. during the worst parental beltings and the deepest pits of the pitz carlton and the shittiest shitstorms of life, i have been delivered to my next breath by the energy of those shared mitochondria outside of my body, whose tender courier is the laughter of my bruhs.

and so, if i could thank our biological designer, i would say thank you for not limiting our sustenance, our energy-generating capacity, to one individualized body. thank you for this shared mtDNA that knows how to spawn energy as one another, for one another, like the world’s first big-smiled whitetooth’d charger.

and thank you, mitochondrial eve, for proving to me that the big bang was actually the great guffaw.

your laughing sisbro,

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1. this is the only “100%” DNA similarity that all “biological siblings” share! ↩︎
2. there exists, technically, a “y-chromosomal adam”, or the most recent common “patrilineal ancestor of all living biological males.” however, of course, y-chromosomal adam is not universal, i.e., it is not passed on to daughters, in the way mitochondrial eve is, because the mitochondria of the sperm are destroyed upon fertilization. so, only nuclear DNA from the sperm can be passed on genetically. ↩︎
3. in this context, bangalore slang for scoldings. another variation: getting belted (which need not actually entail b2a, aka, belt to ass). ↩︎