In Vitro Fertilisation

(asked on 18th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the comments of the Chief Medical Officer of 10 November 2014 that children born through mitochondrial transfer techniques will only have the characteristics any other child would have in that family accord with the view of his Department; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
 Portrait
Jane Ellison
This question was answered on 25th November 2014

Physical characteristics and personality traits are inherited from parents’ nuclear DNA. Whole mitochondrial DNA genome sequencing has revealed no evidence of nuclear genomic DNA inside mitochondria and data on the human genome available in the ENSEMBL and OMIM databases confirms that there is no nuclear genomic DNA in the mitochondria. The Revised Cambridge Reference Sequence of the Human Mitochondrial DNA, which can be found at:

http://www.mitomap.org/MITOMAP/HumanMitoSeq

details the whole mitochondrial DNA genome sequence, the codons, the proteins and the genes encoded for. All genes encoded for by mitochondrial DNA are involved in energy production, rather than governing personal characteristics and traits.

Any child born as a result of the use of mitochondrial donation techniques will be genetically unique and will have a natural combination of nuclear genes from both parents but not the mitochondrial donor. As mentioned by the Chief Medical Officer, mitochondrial DNA only encodes genes responsible for energy production and will not affect the child’s appearance, personality or any other personal characteristics.

Reticulating Splines