BIOL 3202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Intermembrane Space, Cellular Respiration, Ferredoxin
25 Oct 2017
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Essential concepts: mitochondria are thought to have evolved from prokaryotes that were engulfed by an oxygen-tolerant pro-eukaryotic cell from the archaebacterial lineage, a process known as endosymbiosis. Over time, these once free living bacteria were captured as organelles. This suggests that acquisition of mitochondria was an early event in the eukaryotic lineage. Initially, endosymbionts would have been free living in the cytoplasm of the host microbe. Over time, there was transfer of mitochondrial genes to the nuclear genome, include genes essential for reproduction of the mitochondria. Development of transporters capable of importing nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes into the organelle was the next step. A second single endosymbiotic event involving cyanobacteria produced photosynthetic algae. A division of fresh water green algae containing chloroplasts gave ultimately gave rise to land plants: numerous lines of evidence support that the organelles mitochondria and chloroplasts were once free-living prokaryotes.
