Matriline

Matriline is inheritance along the maternal line. The opposite is [[../Patrilien|patriline].

Examples

• The W-chomosome in birds and some reptiles and fish is inherited in a matriline.
• Traites that are encoded in mitochondrial DNA are inherited in matriline, as only eggs provide the mitochondria for the offspring.

Patriline

Patriline is male inheritance. From generation to generation the trait is linked to males only. See also matriline

Examples

• The Y-chromosome in male mammals in inherited in a patriline
• Some insect colonies descent from a single patriline, that is only one male inseminates all eggs and all offspring is from the same father. Honey bee queens, by contrast, allow to be fertilized by different males, called polyandry, so a bee hive usually contains many patrilines [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "2979" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] .

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