Question

Cytoplasmic inheritance is also called maternal inheritance because it is?
A) Without sexual reproduction
B) Only female parent takes part in multiplication
C) Most of the cytoplasm of the zygote is provided by ovum
D) All the above

Answer 1

Inheritance is a biological process by which the genetic information is passed on from the parents to the offsprings. Inheritance of characters can be bring out through both type of reproduction i.e. sexual and asexual reproduction.

Complete answer:
Cytoplasmic inheritance

Cytoplasmic inheritance is also called as the extranuclear inheritance, maternal inheritance, non-Mendelian inheritance, non-chromosomal inheritance or extra chromosomal inheritance.
It is the transmission of genes that occur outside the nucleus from the parents to their offsprings.
It is commonly found in most of the eukaryotes (organisms who have well defined nucleus and membrane bound cell organelles).
During the fusion of sperms and ovum the nuclear part of sperm is provided in the formation of zygote and other parts of the zygote like cytoplasm, cell organelles are provided from the maternal gamete or ovum.

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.

Hence, option ‘C’ is the correct answer.

Note: Gene is a functional unit of inheritance. It is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA (Deoxy ribo nucleic acid ) and RNA (Ribonucleic acid). These genes make up the different kinds of DNA sequences which are called as the genotypes which determine a certain phenotype of an organism.