Abstract
Chloroplast (cp) and mitochondrial (mt) genomes are inherited almost exclusively from one parent in diverse taxa of plants and animals. Uniparental inheritance of mt/cp genomes was long thought to be the passive outcome of the fact that eggs contain multiple numbers of organelles whereas the contributions from male gametes are limited. However, the process is likely to be more dynamic because uniparental inheritance occurs in organisms that produce gametes of identical sizes (isogamous). In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, uniparental inheritance of cp/mt genomes is achieved by a series of mating type-controlled events that actively eliminate mating type minus (mt-) cpDNA within 60 min after mating. How Chlamydomonas selectively degrades mt- cpDNA has long fascinated researchers and is the subject of this review.
