In the nineteenth century, biologist Gregor Mendel established patterns of heredity in sexually reproducing organisms on the basis of equal genetic contributions from both parents. It is now known, however, that there are exceptions to Mendel's laws,...

Cytoplasmic inheritance is a property of genes present outside the nucleus and located in the mitochondria of animals, plants, and fungi, and in the chloroplasts of plant cells. Cytoplasmic inheritance is a non-Mendelian type of inheritance and is...

Biological inheritance is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through inheritance, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause a species...