It's generally thought that mtDNA is only maternally transmitted. But is there any evidence at all for paternal mtDNA transmission? What about during ICSI? And if so, what are the implications? Does it change what we can say about mitochondrial "Eve."?
There is an ongoing debate on this topic. However, it turns out that virtually all reported cases of paternal inheritance of mtDNA in mammals (and specifically in humans) were in fact artifacts of laboratory procedures. I don't have the PDFs with me right now but I'll give you some links later.
Take care
Marcin
OK, I've got the papers:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15923271
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15958208
see also:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16102729
There is another paper of St. John et al. (2000) describing possible paternal inheritance of mtDNA in human embryos but those were polyploid. See:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10675122
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