In
human genetics,
Mitochondrial Eve is the
matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA), in a direct, unbroken, maternal line, of all currently living
humans, who is estimated to have lived approximately 100,000–200,000 years ago. This is the most recent woman from whom
all living humans today descend, in an unbroken line, on their mother’s side, and through the mothers of those mothers, and so on, back until all lines converge on one person. Because all
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) generally (but see
paternal mtDNA transmission) is passed from mother to offspring without
recombination, all mtDNA in every living person is directly descended from hers by definition, differing only by the
mutations that over generations have occurred in the
germ cell mtDNA since the
conception of the original "Mitochondrial Eve".