Homoplasmy
![The cell in the top left is heteroplasmic as shown by the normal mitocondria in purple and the mitochondria with a mtDNA mutation in red. As this cell divides, the mitochondria replicate and independently assort into the daughter cells. This leads to both positive and negative (cell shown in red) homoplasmy.](/Images/godic/202501/18/Homoplasmy1803.png")
Homoplasmy is a term used in genetics to describe a eukaryotic cell whose copies of mitochondrial DNA are all identical. When in normal and healthy tissues, all cells are homoplasmic. Homoplasmic mitochondrial DNA copies may be normal or mutated; however, most mutations are heteroplasmic (only occurring in some copies of mitochondrial DNA). It has been discovered, though, that homoplasmic mitochondrial DNA mutations may be found in human tumors.