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The size of the primate single mitochondrial DNA molecular ring, the genetic technology for obtaining pure samples, the use of nucleotide sequence and restriction endonuclease analyses, and the relatively rapid rate of evolution make mtDNA variation useful for microevolutionary studies within and between species despite the informational content of the 37 genes being restricted to one locus because of complete linkage. The data on chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons support the hypothesis that the two African apes are the closest living biological relatives of humans and favor a closer relation of chimpanzees and humans than of gorillas and humans. The data support the origin of Homo sapiens by regional phyletic transition from H. erectus, starting in Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, and oppose the hypothesis of rapid world-wide replacement by migration from a single source. The human continental races share a majority of both their mitochondrial and nuclear gene pools.

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Within the last ten years complete sequencing of mitochondrial DNA in human and several other species, sequencing of nuclear and mitochondrial ribosomal and transfer RNAs in many species of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, and population studies of restriction enzyme polymorphism in the mtDNAs of insects, mammals and sixteen species of primates produced a wide range of new data and theory in molecular evolutionary genetics. These data support the endosymbiotic origin of the eukaryotic cell, the evolution of the Genus Homo with Pan as the closest related living genus, and the origin of modern Homo sapiens by gradualistic, anagenetic, regional phyletic transformation from Homo erectus.

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