
Maternal Inheritance is caused by the genes in mitochondrial DNA. The egg passes on a lot of mitochondria, whereas the sperm passes a few or zero. Maternal effects result because of the maternal parent produces the egg and further, the genes control production of eggs.
What is the difference between cytoplasmic inheritance and maternal effect?
Cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect are two such situations. These two phenomena are caused due to the genes or factors inherited from the mothers’ egg to the zygote. Maternal effect is a result of mRNA and proteins (gene products) received from the cytoplasm of the mothers’ egg.
Does maternal inheritance increase the resemblance between offspring and mother?
Such a pattern of maternal inheritance increases the resemblance between offspring and mother compared with that between offspring and father, and therefore may appear statistically along with other true maternal effects in quantitative genetic or other analyses.
What is the difference between epigenetic inheritance and maternal effect?
Epigenetic inheritance and Maternal effect both involve genes in the nucleus whereas maternal inheritance involves genes in either the mitochondria or chloroplast. Two other names for extranuclear inheritance? Maternal inheritance/ cytoplasmic inheritance (because the mitochondria and chloroplasts are found in the cytoplasm.)
What is genetic maternal effect?
Genetic maternal effect is due to gene products but not due to actual genes. Chromosomal DNA is considered as the sole genetic material of a cell. However several cellular organelles (mitochondria, chloroplasts) possess DNA which can influence the traits of the offspring.

Is maternal effect and maternal inheritance same?
That is, the maternal genotype and phenotype have no causal influence on the offspring phenotype, and therefore such maternal inheritance is clearly not a maternal effect.
What is the maternal effect inheritance?
A maternal effect, in genetics, is the phenomenon where the genotype of a mother is expressed in the phenotype of its offspring, unaltered by paternal genetic influence. The phenotype of an individual therefore reflects the genotype of its mother, rather than the genotype of the individual.
What is the meaning of maternal effect?
Maternal effect can be defined as the situation where the phenotype of the offspring is influenced by the environment experienced by the mother.
What is the difference between maternal effect and mitochondrial inheritance?
Maternal effect is a result of mRNA and proteins (gene products) received from the cytoplasm of the mothers' egg. Cytoplasmic inheritance is a result of genetic material in the mitochondria or chloroplasts or infective viruses. This is the main difference between cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect.
What is maternal inheritance example?
For example, myotonic dystrophy is a dominant disorder caused by expansion of a triplet repeat. It seems that the severe, congenital form is associated with large expansions that are never seen in sperm and hence always maternally inherited.
What is primarily responsible for the maternal effect?
Sperm cells are important because they fuse with the female egg cells that are further implanted into the uterus. Sperm cells are only responsible for the maternal effect because they help to start the pregnancy. After fertilization, an embryo is produced.
Are maternal effect genes dominant?
For these progeny, loss of the maternally contributed product or failure of the mutant mother to provide normal maternal gene function is thus in effect dominant; these mutations are called maternal-effect lethals.
What is maternal effect in Drosophila?
The abnormal oocyte (abo) gene of Drosophila melanogaster is a peculiar maternal effect gene whose mutations cause a maternal-effect lethality that can be rescued by specific regions of heterochromatin during early embryogenesis.
Why is it called maternal inheritance?
Therefore, it has been clear that the Cytoplasmic inheritance is also called maternal inheritance because most of the cytoplasm of the zygote is provided by the ovum.
What is maternal mitochondrial inheritance?
It's well known that the transfer of mitochondrial DNA from mother to offspring, often called maternal inheritance, occurs in humans and most multicellular organisms. Maternal inheritance is what allows genetic testing services like 23andMe to trace our maternal ancestries.
Is hunchback a maternal effect gene?
Bicoid and Hunchback are the maternal effect genes that are most important for patterning of anterior parts (head and thorax) of the Drosophila embryo. Nanos and Caudal are maternal effect genes that are important in the formation of more posterior abdominal segments of the Drosophila embryo.
What are maternal effects and what are they not )?
A maternal effect is a situation where the phenotype of an organism is determined not only by the environment it experiences and its genotype, but also by the environment and genotype of its mother.
Why is it called maternal inheritance?
Therefore, it has been clear that the Cytoplasmic inheritance is also called maternal inheritance because most of the cytoplasm of the zygote is provided by the ovum.
What is maternal inheritance in plant?
noun. A form of inheritance wherein the traits of the offspring are maternal in origin due to the expression of extranuclear DNA present in the ovum during fertilization.
What is maternal mitochondrial inheritance?
It's well known that the transfer of mitochondrial DNA from mother to offspring, often called maternal inheritance, occurs in humans and most multicellular organisms. Maternal inheritance is what allows genetic testing services like 23andMe to trace our maternal ancestries.
What is an example of a system where imprinting of a locus in offspring is controlled by the?
An example of a system where imprinting of a locus in offspring is controlled by the maternal genotype. (The locus expressed in offspring has two alleles, A1and A2, with frequencies p1and p2while the maternal genotype is defined by a second locus that has two alleles, B1and B2, with frequencies x1and x2. The cells show the expected phenotypes and frequencies (in parentheses) of offspring for each of the 12 maternal–offspring genotype combinations (where offspring genotypes are given as paternally inherited allele followed by maternally inherited allele). The locus shows imprinting with maternal expression in offspring of the B1B1mothers, but biallelic expression with an additive effect in the offspring of other mothers. The A1allele has a+aeffect on the offspring phenotype while the A2allele has a −aeffect. The column labelled z¯maternalgives the mean phenotypes of offspring produced by the three maternal genotypes at the B locus while z¯offspringgives the mean phenotypes of offspring with each of the four ordered genotypes at the A locus.)
What are some examples of imprinted loci?
An example of an imprinted locus showing maternal expression. (The locus has two alleles, A1and A2, with frequencies p1and p2. The expected phenotypes and frequencies (in parentheses) of offspring with each of the four ordered genotypes (given as paternally inherited allele followed by maternally inherited allele) are shown for the eight maternal–offspring genotype combinations. Cells with a frequency of zero are maternal–offspring genotype combinations that cannot exist (e.g. an A1A2individual cannot get the A2allele from their mother). Offspring express the maternally inherited allele, those expressing the A1allele have phenotype +iwhile those expressing the A2allele have phenotype −i. The column labelled z¯maternalgives the mean phenotypes of the offspring produced by the three maternal genotypes while z¯offspringgives the mean phenotypes of the offspring with each of the four ordered genotypes.)
What is the term for the phenomenon where individuals express only the maternally or the paternally inherited copy of an?
Genomic imprinting refers to the phenomenon where individuals express only the maternally or the paternally inherited copy of an allele. More generally, it refers to parent-of-origin dependent gene expression or effects (see Bartolomei & Tilghman 1997; Reik & Walter 2001). Various researchers have suggested that genomic imprinting should be considered a form of parental effect in the sense that it is a parental effect on gene expression (e.g. Lacy 1998). In order to categorize imprinting in a way consistent with our definition of maternal effects, we need to distinguish between the genes in the maternal genome that cause the imprinting and the genes in the offspring genome that become imprinted. The former are maternal effect genes and have evolutionary properties similar to those of other genes with maternal effects on the offspring phenotype. The latter are genes in the zygotic genome with direct effects on the offspring phenotype. Thus, we believe that it is a mistake to lump the entire phenomenon of imprinting with maternal (or more generally parental) effects. This is because the direct effect of the offspring genotype accounts for all of the genetic variance in the expression of the offspring trait, and therefore there is no variation explained by the maternal genotype (see Spencer 2002; Santure & Spencer 2006; Hager et al. 2008). In specific cases, where imprinting is controlled by a maternal trait or locus, there is a causal link to the maternal genotype and the offspring genotype does not account for all the variance.
How does maternal effect affect offspring genotypes?
Consequently, the maternal effect variance (i.e. the variance among the mean offspring of the different maternal genotypes), which is equal to 2a2x1x2(p1−p2)2, and the variance among mean offspring genotypic values, which is equal to 2a2p1p2(x1−x2)2, are both entirely attributable to the physiological interaction (cf. Cheverud & Routman 1995) between maternal and offspring genotypes. That is, the effect of one locus depends upon allele frequencies at the other as in classical epistasis (Wade 2001, 2002). However, this also means that both the A and the B locus will appear to have a main (independent) effect on the offspring phenotype for almost all allele frequencies (as long as the other locus is not fixed or exactly at a frequency of 0.5). As a result, the B locus will almost always appear to have a maternal effect and the A locus will appear to have an independent direct effect.
What is maternal inheritance?
Mather & Jinks 1971; Kirkpatrick & Lande 1989; Thiede 1998; Korpelainen 1999; Reinhold 2002). Maternal inheritance most often refers to the case where individuals inherit some factor from only their mothers, but we distinguish maternal cytoplasmic inheritance to specifically refer to organelle inheritance via the egg. In most cases of uniparental inheritance, the offspring are genetically identical (other than new variation caused by mutation) to their mothers with respect to their cytoplasmic genotype. An example of a maternally inherited locus is given in table 1, which illustrates the simple cases where there is a single locus with two alternative alleles that directly affect some trait (i.e. the cytoplasmic genotype of an individual influences that individual's phenotype). Such a pattern of maternal inheritance increases the resemblance between offspring and mother compared with that between offspring and father, and therefore may appear statistically along with other true maternal effects in quantitative genetic or other analyses. This is due to the increased relatedness (i.e. generally a relatedness of 1) between the maternal and offspring cytoplasmic genotypes (seen by the perfect correlation between maternal and offspring genotypes in table 1). Conceptually, it is easy to see why such a pattern is distinct from a true maternal effect; the offspring cytoplasmic genotype causes all variation in the offspring phenotype. Owing to the perfect correlation between maternal and offspring cytoplasmic genotypes, this variation among offspring of different families cannot be partitioned into separate causal influences within families. However, despite this absolute co-linearity, it is clear that after the offspring cytoplasmic genotype accounts for the phenotypic variation, there would be no variation left over to account for in terms of variations among the maternal cytoplasmic genotypes. That is, the maternal genotype and phenotype have no causalinfluence on the offspring phenotype, and therefore such maternal inheritance is clearly not a maternal effect.
What is the evolutionary significance of maternal effects?
This definition leads to a simple statement of the evolutionary importance of maternal effects—evolutionary changes in the distribution of maternal traits (i. e. genotypes or phenotypes) will cause evolutionary changes in some offspring traits due to the causal influence of those matern al traits on those offspring traits.
What are maternal effects?
Maternal effects can play an important role in a diversity of ecological and evolutionary processes such as population dynamics, phenotypic plasticity, niche construction, life-history evolution and the evolutionary response to selection. However, although maternal effects were defined by quantitative geneticists well over half a century ago, ...
What is Genetic Maternal Effect?
Maternal effect is a situation which determines the phenotype of an offspring by the genotype of its mother, independent of the offspring genotype and environmental effect. In other words, the maternal effect is the casual influence of the maternal genotype on the phenotype of the offspring regardless of its genotype. It occurs due to the specific mRNA and proteins supplied by the mother to the zygote during embryo development. In many organisms, the embryo is initially inactive for the transcription. Hence, the supply of mRNA and proteins from the maternal side is important. The maternal effect does not arise due to heredity units. It arises totally due to these molecules received from the maternal supply. Due to these maternal effects, two offspring may sometimes differ phenotypically from each other though they possess the same genotype. One individual may resemble the mother parent.
What is cytoplasmic inheritance?
Cytoplasmic inheritance is the inheritance of characteristics due to the genetic information stored in cytoplasmic DNA or organelle DNA. Genetic maternal effect is the phenomenon where offspring traits are decided by maternal factors such as mRNA and proteins. Occurrence.
What is the difference between cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect?
The key difference between cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect is that cytoplasmic inheritance occurs due the genetic information stored in genes of some organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts present in the cytoplasm while genetic maternal effect occurs due to the mRNA and proteins received from the female gamete.
What is the term for the inheritance of traits from generation to generation?
Inheritance of characteristics from generation to generation by extrachromosomal /cytoplasmic/ organelle DNA is called cytoplasmic inheritance. There are a large number of examples which show the involvement of cytoplasmic DNA in controlling heredity traits of the organisms.
Why is DNA outside the nucleus?
This indicates that there is DNA outside the nucleus which contributes to deciding the phenotype of the offspring. Scientists have discovered that it is mainly due to two phenomena named cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect.
What is the main storehouse of genetic information in a cell?
Chromosomal DNA is the main storehouse of genetic information in a cell. It is instrumental in deciding the phenotype of an offspring. However, there are instances where the phenotype of the offspring is similar to the maternal phenotype regardless of environmental effects or the genotype it bears. This indicates that there is DNA outside ...
Which organelle contains DNA?
Mitochondria and chloroplast are two organelles present in cells which contain DNA other than chromosomal DNA. These organellar DNA carries genetic information and works independently or in collaboration with nuclear DNA (chromosomal DNA). Inheritance of characteristics from generation to generation by extrachromosomal /cytoplasmic/ organelle DNA is called cytoplasmic inheritance. There are a large number of examples which show the involvement of cytoplasmic DNA in controlling heredity traits of the organisms. Hence, they are also known as cytoplasmic heredity units or cytoplasmic genes.
