CoachMitochondria and chloroplasts keep a remnant of their bacterial ancestors’ chromosome (Chapter 6): a small circle — and 37 genes in human mitochondria, and about 100 genes in chloroplasts — in many copies per organelle, coding for some of their own proteins and for the RNAs of their ribosomes. The rest of their proteins come from nuclear genes. In most animals the mitochondrial genome is inherited from the mother only, with the egg’s cytoplasm.
Biology · Glossary