Inheritance patterns are the predictable patterns seen in the transmission of genes from one generation to the next, and their expression in the organism that possesses them. (A gene is said to be expressed when it is read by cellular mechanisms that result in the production of a protein.) While people have long noted that offspring resemble parents, the formal description of inheritance patterns began with Gregor Mendel, whose discoveries laid the foundation for the modern understanding of genetic inheritance.
Mitochondrial Inheritance
Mitochondria are the cell's power plants. They possess their own chromosome, which carries thirty-seven genes. Mitochondria are inherited only from the mother. Mitochondrially inherited disorders include a number of rare muscle diseases (mitochondrial myopathies), as well as some deafness syndromes, optic nerve degeneration, and other neurological disorders.
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