mother of all golden hamsters.

While reading "The Seven Daughters of Eve" by Brian Sykes, I came upon this interesting fact about Syrian hamsters, otherwise known as golden hamsters: they are descended from one mother hamster found in the Syrian desert in the 1930's. It had been assumed/presumed, but Dr. Sykes was able to prove it based on conservation of the sequence in the control region of mitochondrial DNA. 

Unlike nuclear DNA, Mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from mother to child, and difference in DNA sequence of the control region suggests length of deviation among ancestors/previous generations. Using DNA from the droppings of hamsters of different breeds, Sykes found that all the 35 different hamsters' mitochondrial DNA were identical, implying his hypothesis was indeed correct, and that the hamsters from all over the world were indeed descended from one single female hamster, the Mitochondrial Eve of Syrian hamsters.

look at that face. link

This prepared him to apply this theory to humans, which brings us to the thesis of this book, where he classifies modern Europeans into seven groups each based on characteristical mutations in mitochondrial DNA, each descended from a daughter of Mitochondrial Eve.


The book is intended for the general audience, and explains scientific concepts thoroughly as they come up. He peppers the book with personal anecdotes and fun observations, which keeps the reading interesting and personal.