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The Celebration of Maternal Cytoplasmic Inheritance

Excerpt: This piece pays tribute to Mother’s Day 2024, focusing on the significance of maternal cytoplasmic inheritance in human creation and existence. The author extols the divine principles of fatherhood and motherhood, which shape life through a three-fold inheritance: the human genome, cytoplasmic inheritance, and the inheritance of the physical and social environment. The author emphasizes the role of the mother cell in bequeathing life, energy, and knowledge, via the mitochondria – the cellular powerhouse. The mother cell also carries unique attributes that, in combination with paternal genes, ensure every human being displays their distinct individuality. The cell’s functionality in acquiring and distributing energy, and its cytoplasmic intelligence, are ascribed to maternal cytoplasmic inheritance.

To celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 12, 2024, I account for my human existence using the phrase Whole Inheritance which includes the contributions of the Divine Principle, the Father Principle, and the Mother Principle. The term inheritance must include the inheritance of Matter and Knowledge from Mother apart from the genome as the fact of existence needs the support from an external environment at any given time and place.

The Divine Principle ensures the creation of the newborn who arrives in a physical and social environment to exist as an Individual with Individuality, an original, one of its own kind of object without any exceptions.

The Celebration of Maternal Cytoplasmic Inheritance

The establishment of human existence primarily involves three kinds of inheritance. 1. The Inheritance of the Human Genome, 2. The Cytoplasmic Inheritance which includes the inheritance of cytoplasm and its organelles, the Cell Membrane or Biological Membrane, and 3. The Inheritance of Physical and Social Environment that supports the existence

The Inheritance of Cell or Biological Membrane:

The Functions of Biological Membrane:

1. Protection: It protects the cell from its surroundings or extracellular environment. Plant cell possess wall over the plasma membrane for extra protection and support.

2. Holding cell contents: Plasma membranes hold the semi fluid protoplasmic contents of the cell intact; thus keeping the individuality of the cell.

3. Selective Permeability: Cell membrane allows only selected or specific substances to enter into the cell and are impermeable to others.

• Gases like O₂ and CO₂ can diffuse rapidly in solution through membranes.
• Small compounds like H2O and methane can easily pass through where as sugars, amino acids and charged ions are transported with the help of transport proteins.
• The size of the molecules which can pass through the plasma membrane is 1-15 A⁰. This property is responsible for keeping a cell ‘as a cell’, an individual unit.

4. Shape: It maintains form and shape of the cell. It serves as site of anchorage or attachment of the cytoskeleton; thus providing shape to the cell (especially in animal cells without cell wall).

5. Organelles: Cell membrane delimits or covers all sub-cellular structures or organelles like nucleus, mitochondria, plastids, Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, microbodies etc. thus protecting them form the surroundings and also helps in maintaining a constant internal environment.

6. Compartmentalization: Cell membrane separate the cells from their external environment and cell organelle from cytosol. It help the cells and their organelles to have their own microenvironments, structural and functional individuality.

7. Cell Recognition: With the help of glycolipids and glycoproteins on its surface, cell membranes are able to differentiate similar cells from dissimilar ones, foreign substances and cells own materials. Cell recognition is useful for tissue formation and defence against microbes.

8. Antigens: Cell membranes possess antigens which determine blood grouping, immune response, acceptance or rejection of a transplant (graft rejection by MHC’s on plasma membrane).

9. Microvilli: They are microscopic finger like projections of plasma membrane present on some cells like intestinal epithelial cells, which are involved in a wide variety of functions, including increasing surface area for absorption, secretion, cellular adhesion etc.

10. Sheaths of cilia and flagella: Cilia and flagella are projections from the cell; made up of microtubules which are covered by an extension of the plasma membrane.

11. Cytoplasmic bridges in plasmodesmata and gap junctions: Plasmodesmata in plant cells and gap junctions in animal cells; meant for intercellular transport and communication, form cytoplasmic bridges between adjacent cells through plasma membrane.

12. Endocytosis and Exocytosis: Bulk intake of materials or endocytosis occurs through development of membrane vesicles or invagination and engulfing by plasma membrane.

Exocytosis: It is reverse of endocytosis that provides for releasing waste products and secretory materials ot of the cells with the help of plasma membrane.

13. Impulse transmission in neurons: The transmission of a nerve impulse along a neuron from one end to the other occurs as a result of electrical changes across the plasma membrane of the neuron

14. Cell metabolism: Cell membranes control cell metabolism through selective permeability and retentivity of substances in a cell.

15. Electron transport chain in bacteria: In bacteria; Electron transport chain is located in cell membrane.

16. Osmosis through cell membrane: It is movement of solvent molecules (generally water) from the region of less concentrated solution to the region of high concentrated solution through a semi permeable membrane. Here the semi permeable membrane that helps in osmosis is the cell membrane. Eg: Root cells take up water from the soil by osmosis

17. Carrier proteins for active transport: They occur in the cell membranes and control active transport of substances. Example, GLUT1 is a named carrier protein found in almost all animal cell membranes that transports glucose across the bilayer or plasma membrane.

18. Plasma Membrane enzymes: Many enzymes are present on the plasma membrane with wide variety of catalytic activity. Example: Red blood cell plasma membranes contain a number of enzymes such as ATPases, anion transport protein, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, protein kinases, adenylate cyclase, acetylcholinesterase.

19. Cell Membrane Receptors: Receptor on the plasma membrane performs signal transduction, converting an extracellular signal into an intra-cellular signal. Membrane possess receptors for hormones, neurotransmitters, antibodies and several other biochemicals.

20. Plasma membrane assisted Cell movements: Undulation and pseudopodia are cell membrane phenomenon involved in cell movement. Amoeba, macrophages and WBCs move with the helps of temporary organelles like pseudopodia. Pseudopods are temporary cytoplasmic projections of the cell membrane in certain unicellular protists such as Amoeba. Some mammalian cells such as fibroblasts can move over a solid surface by wave like undulations of the plasma membrane.

The Divine Principle has to be both male and female and in this article, I present the feminine aspect of Divine Principle as “Whole Angel”, the harmonious blending or coming together of Angel of Beauty, Angel of Mercy, and Angel of Knowledge. My understanding of Mother and Motherhood comes from the study of the building blocks of Life. The most important building block of human life is the fertilized Egg Cell.

The Father and the Mother – The Principles governing Life:

Father is described as the male parent, an ancestor, an originator, and as a Controller. Very often, in the Land of India, God is considered as both the Father and the Mother of all life forms. Mother is described as the female parent and something that is regarded as a ‘Source’. In the Indian tradition, Father may be viewed as the ‘Prime Cause’ and Mother is the Source of ‘Prime Energy’. Mother is the source of energy in performance of all kinds of actions and in accomplishment of all kinds of work. The Mother Principle represents the Endeavor/Work/Effort that makes action possible. If Life is defined as function at the level of biological molecules, Mother represents the Source or the Origin of these organic molecules; Mother is the Source of Energy for the synthesis of these organic molecules; and Mother is the Source of Knowledge that provides the ability of recognition and the ability to use the molecules in a sequential manner to manage the biochemical reactions of these organic molecules to function as Life.   

Angel of Beauty – Mother – Source of Life:   

The complex, multicellular human organism begins as a single cell. That single cell is the source of life, energy, and knowledge.   

I, as a human organism exist in this world as I arrived from a previously existing ‘Mother Cell’. By repeated cell growth and cell division or replication known as ‘Mitosis’, the human organism grows and develops into a form containing thousands of billions of cells. This process of development is called ‘Morphogenesis’ which involves not only cell growth but differentiation into specialized types of cells. All the tissues and organs of which the human body is composed have originally developed from a microscopic cell known as ‘Ovum’ or the ‘Egg Cell’. This Ovum or Egg Cell may be regarded as a perfect cell and could be described as ‘Mother Cell’. All the solid tissues in the human body can be shown to consist largely of similar cells; it is true that they may differ, but they are essentially similar to an Ovum. The Ovum is a reproductive cell that is adapted to meet the nutritional requirements of the early developmental stages of the embryo. It is always a large cell because it contains sufficient cytoplasmic substance for the development of a self-sufficient embryo. Some of the substance which is packaged in yolk particles contains cell components; typically an Ovum contains sufficient quantities of components for many cells. Thus the Ovum need not grow as it divides; as the nuclei divide, the cytoplasm subdivides until the Ovum consists of a large number of normal-sized cells. By contrast, the male reproductive cells known as ‘Spermatozoa’ contain very little cytoplasm and they cannot further divide into new cells.   

THE Source OF Life – Protoplasm:

The most significant feature of the similarity between the cells of a man and that of the ‘Mother Cell’ from which he had arrived is  presence of a soft gelatinous, semi-fluid, granular material inside the cell. This substance known as ‘Protoplasm’ is similar to that found in the Ovum. The Ovum consists of this viscous, translucent, colloidal substance enclosed in a membrane called Plasma Membrane. A small spherical body called nucleus is embedded in the protoplasm. The protoplasm could also be differentiated into cytoplasm and nucleoplasm based upon its location. Cytoplasm refers to protoplasm located outside the nucleus. Nucleoplasm refers to protoplasm located inside the nucleus. The two essential features of any living cell in the human body are that of  presence of protoplasm and the nucleus.   

The most striking characteristics of protoplasm are its vital properties of “Motion” and “Nutrition”. Protoplasm has the intrinsic power to change its shape and position. Motion of protoplasm is called ‘amoeboid movement’ as it resembles the movements observed in the Amoeba proteus animalcule. Nutrition is the power which protoplasm has of attracting itself the materials necessary for its growth and maintenance from surrounding matter and environment. The Egg Cell or the Ovum is the Source or the Mother of Life. This living matter, living substance, or corporeal material has divine attributes. It is conscious, it is aware, and it performs cognitive functions to sustain its own living condition.   

Heredity is the sum of all biological processes by which particular characteristics are transmitted from parents to their offspring. A child inherits a genetic constitution from its biological parents. This hereditary endowment, the total of the genes that the child has received from both parents is called the genotype. The genotype of an individual is formed from the constituents of the genotypes of his parents. The genotype in a fertilized Egg Cell influences the developmental pattern of the child. Progeny is not exact duplicates of their parents and usually vary in many traits. Heredity and Variation are two sides of the same coin. The outward appearance of an organism is called the phenotype. The same individual shows different phenotypes in childhood, in adulthood, and in old age. The genotype, on the other hand, does not change during an individual’s life. Each cell in the human body contains the same total genetic information that was present in the fertilized Egg. However, the cells are not identical. In different types of cells, groups of genes are controlled (in effect switched on and off) by various biochemical processes, so that each cell manufactures the proteins and structures needed for it to function. Cells are regulated by the DNA in the nucleus and by the transfer of selected portions of the DNA information to the cytoplasm through the intermediate molecules of ‘Messenger RNA’. It is estimated that, on average, only about 10 percent of the genes of any cell are functional; selection of functional genes varies with the type of cell. This biological phenomenon of selective gene functioning may contribute to what I term as ‘The Law of Individuality’. Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA accounts for the ability of all living matter to replicate itself exactly and to transmit genetic information from parent to offspring. The child maintains its individuality by selectively switching the inherited DNA on and off. The Law of Individuality applies to all living organisms. Despite the basic biological, chemical, and physical similarities found in all living things, diversity of life exists not only among and between species but also within every natural population.   

 The Mother Cell is the Source of Life for its child and yet the child comes into existence as a brand new and original product with its own Identity and Individuality. The Mother Cell does not manufacture the new multicellular organism called child. A child is always a created object even when it derives its life from a Mother Cell.   

Angel of Mercy, Grace, and Compassion – Mother – Source of Energy:   

To maintain life an organism not only repairs or replaces (or both) its structures by a constant supply of the materials of which it is composed but also keeps its life processes in operation by a steady supply of energy.   

Living systems must be supplied energy for continual synthesis of new organic molecules and to replace or to repair broken organic molecules. This functional activity; the processes of synthesis and breakdown of organic molecules by a living cell, is known as metabolism. Metabolism involves a living system’s continual exchange of some of its materials with its surroundings, principally in the process of building up or destroying its protoplasm. growth involves a higher rate of synthesis of protoplasm than a rate of breakdown of that matter.   

Organisms acquire energy for their metabolism by two general methods and could be classified as autotrophs or self feeders and heterotrophs or feeders of other organisms. Plants are known as Photoautotrophs as they acquire useful free energy from the energy of Sunlight. In a process known as Photosynthesis, plants use Sunlight to break water into Oxygen and Hydrogen. Hydrogen is then combined with Carbon dioxide to produce such energy-rich molecules as Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and carbohydrates and the Oxygen is released back into the atmosphere. Humans and most other animals are known as heterotrophs – these organisms acquire energy by the controlled breakdown of pre-existing organic molecules (food) supplied by other organisms. Humans utilize the atmospheric Oxygen (released by plant life) to combine chemically with organic matter (food) they have eaten and release Carbon dioxide and water as waste products. Metabolic processes do not occur in one step. It is not similar to burning sugar in air.   

The glucose, a simple sugar is broken down by a series of successive and coordinated steps, each mediated by a particular and specific enzyme. The human organism extracts useful energy by a metabolic process described as Oxidation-Reduction Reactions. The glucose is broken down in a series of about 71 enzymatically catalyzed steps. The first 11 of these biochemical reactions do not involve the use of Oxygen. These Oxidation-Reduction Reactions occur in intracellular organelles known as Mitochondria in the cytoplasm of cells.   

Mitochondria – The Powerhouse of Cells:   

Mitochondria are typically sausage-shaped particles about 0.5 to one micron wide and about 5 to 10 microns long. They are surrounded by an outer unit membrane which controls the passage of material into and out of the mitochondria and govern their internal environment. The inner membrane is the site of the respiratory functions that make the mitochondria the so-called Powerhouse of the Cell. The inner membrane is folded repeatedly into shelf like folds called cristae which contain the enzymes that play an essential role in  conversion of the energy of foodstuffs into the energy used for cellular activities.   

Mitochondria and Chloroplasts – A Divine Source for Energy Acquisition:   

Mitochondria and Chloroplasts found in the green plant cells perform the same fundamental processes. The Chloroplasts contain the green colored pigment known as Chlorophyll. The Chloroplasts convert the energy of Sunlight into energy-rich ATP and use ATP to convert Carbon into specific organic substances. The most important equations for living things are mutually inverse. Respiration of human organisms represents the reverse of Photosynthesis of Green Plants. Both Mitochondria and the Chloroplasts are semi-independent and self-reproducing parts of the living cells. They have a degree of autonomy and they are unlike the other components of cells. Mitochondria contain DNA in the form of a Chromosome arranged in a ring. The DNA of  Mitochondria has different distribution of bases from that of the DNA found in the Chromosomes present in the nucleus. Mitochondria carry the genes for their own replication and for the enzymes found in them. They can synthesize some of their own proteins and reproduce by themselves. In one respect the mitochondria function as the parts of the cells and in another respect, they behave like independent organisms that reproduce on their own.   

The Mother Cell is the source of Mitochondria found in all the cells of my human body. During the Growth and Development of Human Embryo and Fetus, all the newly formed cells contain Mitochondria derived from the Egg Cell. Hence, mother as a biological parent represents the Source of Energy for all the Living Functions and activities of her children. I cannot move a muscle in my body without drawing energy supplied by the maternal Mitochondria which continue to live and replicate establishing my mother as the Source of Energy for my existence during my entire Life’s Journey.   

Angel of Knowledge – Mother – Source of Knowledge:   

Life is the state of an individual characterized by the capacity to perform certain functional activities including the ability of responsiveness. Life is further characterized by  presence of complex transformation of organic molecules and by organization of such molecules into the successively larger units of protoplasm, cells, organs, and tissues. Hence, I have defined Life as “Knowledge in Action.”   

Responsiveness represents the ability of an organism to change in response to alteration in its environment. Responsiveness, alertness, awareness, and consciousness separates living from nonliving matter and defines life’s underlying principle. Living cells are aware or conscious of the environment in which they exist as well as the state of their own internal environment. The one very important part of environment of a cell is other cells. The ability called awareness and responsiveness is important for recognition, association, and cooperation between cells. Cells function together by exchanging chemical signals.   

THE Cytoplasmic or Maternal Inheritance:

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA accounts for the ability of all living matter to replicate itself exactly and to transmit genetic information from parent to offspring. While offspring inherit a genetic constitution and hereditary traits from both parents, some characteristics are inherited through the maternal line only. For example, there are no Chlorophyll containing Chloroplasts in pollen grains of (male) flowers. The act of Pollination does not contribute this most important characteristic known as Chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are found only in the Egg Cells of (female) flowers. Similarly, humans inherit the Powerhouses called Mitochondria only from Maternal cytoplasm. A Cytoplasmic Inheritance is entirely Maternal. Human functions that involve Sensory Perception, Mental Cognition, Learning, and the functions of Memory and Consciousness should be viewed as functions of the cytoplasm. Cytoplasm represents the Seat of Knowledge. Man begins Life as a single cell with its cytoplasm. The cell grows and divides while building more of its cytoplasm. Knowledge is the Fact of Knowing, the State of Knowing, and the Act of Knowing a range of information. The Mother or the Source of Knowledge is the Maternal Cytoplasm inherited from the Egg Cell, Ovum, or the Mother Cell.