There are three main types of ancestry DNA test and they each report on different aspects of your genetic heritage. Broadly speaking, they can be categorized into autosomal, maternal and paternal ancestry tests, and it’s the maternal tests that are conducted using mitochondrial DNA (aka mtDNA).
Mitochondrial DNA is passed on directly from mother to child and is part of a DNA heritage. It can be analyzed to give an ancestral information about your mother, your mother’s mother, your mother’s mother’s mother, and so on. In fact, mitochondrial DNA tests are known to be effective for tracing your maternal lineage up to 52 generations ago! Unlike Y DNA tests, both men and women have mitochondrial DNA and so anyone can take a mitochondrial DNA test.
Mitochondrial DNA can be divided into three main regions: HVR1, HVR2 and the coding region (sometimes known as HVR3). Before mitochondrial sequencing became cost-effective, genetic ancestry companies would analyze just the HVR1 region, or both the HVR1 and HVR2 regions, seeking to identify the genetic variants present.
HVR1 and HVR2 stand for hypervariable regions one and two, and they contain the DNA that controls the genes in the coding region. Together, the HVR1 and HVR2 regions account for less than 7% of mitochondrial DNA. Consequently, analysing the HVR1 and HVR2 regions only means that your ability to trace your ancestry on your maternal line is limited.
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