Mitochondria
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A mitochondrion is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosin
Cross-sectional image of cristae in a rat liver mitochondrion to demonstrate the likely 3D structure and relationship to the inner membrane
Transmission electron micrograph of a chondrocyte, stained for calcium, showing its nucleus (N) and mitochondria (M)
Typical mitochondrial network (green) in two human cells (HeLa cells)
Symbiogenesis
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Symbiogenesis is the leading evolutionary theory of the origin of eukaryotic cells from prokaryotic organisms. The theory holds that mitochondria, plastids such as chloroplasts, and possibly other org
Mitochondria
…cell nucleus, the mitochondrion has its own genome ("mitogenome") that is similar to bacterial genomes. This finding has led to general acceptance of symbiogenesis (endosymbiotic theory) – that free-living prokaryotic ancestors of modern mitochondria permanently fused with eukaryotic cells in the distant past…
Konstantin Mereschkowski's 1905 tree-of-life diagram, showing the origin of complex life-forms by two episodes of symbiogenesis, the incorporation of symbiotic bacteria to form successively nuclei and chloroplasts
Internal symbiont: mitochondrion has a matrix and membranes, like a free-living alphaproteobacterial cell, from which it may derive.