Did Your Dad Contribute to Your Mitochondria? The “Spare Tire” Theory That Could Rewrite Biology
In this Energy Code Deep Dive, Dr. Mike Belkowski and co-host Don Bailey unpack a 2025 review in Mitochondrion that challenges one of biology’s most entrenched rules: the idea that mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother.
For decades, paternal mitochondria were considered disposable “damaged goods” — actively destroyed by the egg through highly conserved cellular cleanup systems. But this episode explores mounting evidence that the rule may be more flexible than we thought, especially under crisis conditions.
The hosts break down:
why biology usually enforces maternal-only…
The skinny
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