Q.What is meant by cytoplasmic inheritance?

Step 1. Ordinary Mendelian inheritance is governed entirely by genes located on nuclear chromosomes, which are contributed equally by both parents at fertilisation.

Step 2. Certain traits, however, are governed by genes located outside the nucleus, in cytoplasmic organelles - specifically the mitochondrion and the chloroplast - each of which carries its own small, independent, self-replicating genetic unit called a plasmogene.

Step 3. Because this inheritance is carried through the cytoplasm rather than the nuclear chromosomes, it is called extra-nuclear or extra-chromosomal inheritance, and, since the organelles concerned live in the cytoplasm, it is equally called cytoplasmic inheritance; it is classed as a form of non-Mendelian inheritance because it does not follow the normal segregation ratios of nuclear genes. …

Define cytoplasmic inheritance as organelle-gene-based, non-Mende …

• Describing cytoplasmic inheritance without naming its maternal transmission pattern, which is its key diagnostic feature. …