Mitochondria are so much more than that!
They have the ability to kill the cell as well as provide power, they can communicate and transfer resources to other mitochondria, and they might be one of the reasons that organisms need sleep.
I heard a science communicator suggest that in some senses, we might just exist to serve the needs of our mitochondria.
Scientists theorize that the mitochondria was an entirely different organism which was captured by our ancient single-celled ancestor and assimilated into itself. I can’t remember what the evidence is for this theory but it’s wild to think about.
Yep! It’s called primary endosymbosis and it’s one of the coolest things around! (I think.) The endpoint of a process where two parts of symbiotic relationship morph into an organ in an organism.
The first case of primary endosymbosis resulted in the mitochondria and thus all multicellar life. That’s pretty cool.
Another time created the chloroplast and thus all plantlife. Again, yay for primary endosymbiosis!
A few years ago scientists discovered that it happened really recently, resulting in an organism with a “nitroplast” for in house nitrogen fixing. So in the far distant future there could be an entirely novel branch of life, potentially as different from what we know as redwoods are from cats.
it always bugs me that this phrase isn’t even grammatically correct. mitochondria is plural. it should be “the mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell”
That makes it sound like each cell has one mitochondrion and each mitochondrion equates to one powerhouse while in fact, all mitochondria of a cell collectively are the powerhouse of the cell
Pedantry gone too far!
Mitochondria would be grammatically correct because there are multiple mitochondrion in the cell. Referring to only one of them would be inaccurate.
Then it’s the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell
Unless “the mitochondria” is a singular group noun, like in “The Village People is a band”, or “This [set of] data was collected…”
I, too, love pulling this trick out. :p
