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Disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, ALS and others occur sporadically. Rarely do these disorders occur in typical Mendelian patterns of inheritance; more often they strike randomly. Searches for non-genetic factors such as toxins or infectious agents have not been rewarding. However, origination of these disorders in mitochondrial rather than chromosomal genes could explain both their non-Mendelian patterns of inheritance as well as the failure to find other causes. A considerable amount of evidence now exists implicating mitochondrial genes in the pathogenesis of these disorders. If correct, this hypothesis represents a paradigm shift and, as such, has encountered considerable resistance and political pressure.
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