Mitochondrial dna can be taken from bone, hair, or teeth and used in dna typing. what are the benefits to using mitochondrial dna over nuclear dna? mtdna requires a much smaller sample than nuclear dna. mtdna is useful if the nuclear dna is degraded. mtdna is inherited from the mother and father’s egg cells, unlike nuclear dna. mtdna is present in all maternal relatives of the person being investigated.

The answer is; mtDNA is useful if the nuclear DNA is degraded.

There is a higher likelihood of salvaging intact mtDNA compared to nuclear DNA in degraded cells such as old bones and teeth. The reason for this is that there are numerous mitochondria in cells compared to one nucleus. Therefore the mtDNA will provide substantial samples compared to nuclear DNA in such cases.

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