Answer to Question #126056 in Cell Biology for Bofelo Medupi

Question

How mitochondria ended up in eukaryotic cells

Answer 1

There are two hypotheses on the origin of mitochondria.The endosymbiotic hypothesis indicates that mitochondria were initially prokaryotic cells capable of introducing oxidative processes that were not feasible for eukaryotic cells; they were endosymbionts residing within eukaryotic cells.In the autogenous hypothesis, mitochondria was born by splitting a portion of DNA from the eukaryotic cell nucleus at the time of prokaryotic divergence; this portion of DNA would have been enclosed by membranes that could not be crossed by proteins. Since mitochondria has several traits in common with bacteria, the endosymbiotic hypothesis is accepted more widely