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Homoplasmy

 
Dictionary: Ho·mo·plas·my

n.

(Biol.) Resemblance between different plants or animals, in external shape, in general habit, or in organs, which is not due to descent from a common ancestor, but to similar surrounding circumstances.


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Homoplasmy is the presence of a mutation affecting all of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copies in a mammalian cell or chloroplast DNA in a plant cell. Since there are hundreds or even thousands of mtDNA copies in every eukaryotic cell, mutations may either be present in all copies (homoplasmy) or affect only a fraction of them (heteroplasmy).

See also microheteroplasmy.

Homeoplasmy = a state in which all the mitochondria of a cell or a tissue have the same genome, which may be either the wild type genome or a mutated one.


Homoplasmy may also refer to the presence of mutation, or insertion of a foreign gene, into all of the plant plastid organelles DNA e.g. all of the chloroplasts


 
 
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Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Homoplasmy" Read more