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Updated: May 4, 2026

Mating and Tetrad Separation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for Genetic Analysis
Published on: August 12, 2009
The mechanism of maternal inheritance in Chlamydomonas: Biochemical and genetic studies
1Dept. of Biological Sciences, Hunter College of the City University of New York, USA.
Abstract:
The cytoplasmic linkage group of Chlamydomonas shows maternal inheritance, i.e. preferential transmission of cytogenes from the female (m t (+)) parent and loss of the corresponding male (m t (-)) genome in sexual crosses. The mechanism of this process is postulated to be enzymatic modification of chloroplast DNA of the female to protect it from a restriction enzyme which degrades the chloroplast DNA of the male parent in the zygote soon after fusion. Genetic, biochemical and physical data bearing on this hypothesis are summarized and discussed.
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