F.

MATERNAL EFFECT
Maternal effect refers to an inheritance pattern for certain nuclear genes in which the
genotype of the mother directly
determines the phenotype of her
offspring. (Note that maternal effect
should not be confused with maternal
inheritance.) Surprisingly, for
maternal effect genes, the
genotypes of the father and offspring
themselves do not affect the
phenotype of the offspring.
The first example of a
maternal effect gene was studied in
the 1920s by Arthur Boycott and
involved morphological features of
the water snail, Lymnaea peregra. In
this species, the shell and internal
organs can be arranged in either a
Figure 6.4. Experiment showing the inheritance pattern of
right-handed (dextral) or left-handed snail coiling.

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(sinistral) direction. The dextral orientation is more common and is dominant to the sinistral
orientation. Figure 6.4 describes the results of a genetic analysis carried out by Boycott. In
this experiment, he began with two different true-breeding strains of snails with either a
dextral or sinistral morphology. Many combinations of crosses produced results that could
not be explained by a Mendelian pattern of inheritance. When a dextral female (DD) was
crossed to a sinistral male (dd), all F1 offspring were dextral. However, in the reciprocal
cross, where a sinistral female (dd) was crossed to a dextral male (DD), all F1 offspring
were sinistral. Taken together, these results contradict a Mendelian pattern of inheritance
At the molecular and cellular level, the non-Mendelian inheritance pattern of maternal
effect genes can be explained by the process of oogenesis in female animals. As an animal
oocyte (egg) matures, many surrounding maternal cells called nurse cells provide the egg
with nutrients and other materials. A female is heterozygous for the snailcoiling maternal
effect gene, with the alleles designated D and d. Depending on the outcome of meiosis, the
haploid egg may receive the D allele or the d allele, but not both. The surrounding nurse
cells, however, produce both D and d gene products (mRNA and/or proteins). These gene
products are then transported into the egg.

G. SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. What is extranuclear inheritance? Describe examples.
2. Among different species, does extranuclear inheritance always follow a maternal
inheritance pattern? Why or why not?
3. Discuss the structure and organization of the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes.
How large are they, how many genes do they contain, and how many copies of the genome
are found in each organelle?
4. Explain the likely evolutionary origin of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes. How have
the sizes of the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes changed since their origin? How did
this occur?
5. A maternal effect gene exists in a dominant N (normal) allele and a recessive n
(abnormal) allele. What would be the ratios of genotypes and phenotypes for the offspring of
the following crosses?
A. nn female × NN male
B. NN female × nn male
C. Nn female × Nn male

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