Extranuclear inheritance or cytoplasmic inheritance is the transmission of genes that occur outside the nucleus. It is found in most eukaryotes and is commonly known to occur in cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts or from cellular parasites like viruses or bacteria.

What are examples of extranuclear genes?

In organisms in which one gamete is much larger than the other, so that the smaller gamete contains very little cytoplasm, one parent will contribute most or all of the extranuclear genes. For example, human mitochondrial DNA is passed from generation to generation through the maternal line in the ovum.

What is extranuclear genome?

All of the genetic information in a cell was initially thought to be confined to the DNA in the chromosomes of the cell nucleus. It is now known that small circular chromosomes, called extranuclear, or cytoplasmic, DNA, are located in two types of organelles found in the cytoplasm of the cell.