Question

Mirabilis jalapa resembles a good example of

• A. Complete dominance
• B. Plastid inheritance
• C. Mitochondrial inheritance
• D. None of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Plastid inheritance

True cytoplasmic inheritance is those that involve plastids, which are minute cytoplasmic organelles in plant cells. Most important of these plastids are chloroplasts carrying chlorophyll. These chloroplasts duplicate themselves independently of other parts of the cell and carry some genetic information in the form of DNA. Plastids are usually transmitted through egg cytoplasm, and only very rarely few if any plastids are transmitted through pollen. Consequently, characters depending on plastids exhibit cytoplasmic inheritance sometimes independent of nuclear genes as in Mirabilis jalapa.

So, the correct answer is option B.