cytoplasmic inheritance
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Related to cytoplasmic inheritance: Maternal inheritance
cy·to·plas·mic in·her·i·tance
transmission of characters dependent on self-perpetuating elements not nuclear in origin (for example, mitochondrial DNA).
Synonym(s): extranuclear inheritance
Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
cy·to·plas·mic in·her·i·tance
(sī'tō-plaz'mik in-her'i-tăns)Transmission of characters dependent on self-perpetuating elements not nuclear in origin (e.g., mitochondrial DNA).
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012
cytoplasmic inheritance
The genetic effects of DNA situated in MITOCHONDRIA.Collins Dictionary of Medicine © Robert M. Youngson 2004, 2005
cytoplasmic inheritance
orextranuclear inheritance
the control of certain characters by genetic factors located in the cytoplasm of EUKARYOTES. These cytoplasmic mechanisms can show themselves as general ‘maternal’ influences (since the female gamete contains more cytoplasm than the male) as in the control of shell coiling in the snail Limnaea. DNA has also been located in several cytoplasmic organelles, such as a MITOCHONDRION or a CHLOROPLAST, which can replicate and function independently of the nucleus.Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005