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AP®︎/College Biology
Course: AP®︎/College Biology > Unit 2
Lesson 8: Cell compartmentalization and its originsEndosymbiosis theory
The theory of how mitochondria, chloroplasts and other membrane-bound organelles in eukaryotic cell likely arose from a symbiosis between aerobic prokaryotes and host anaerobic eukaryotic ancestors. Developed by Lynn Margulis.
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- So the link between prokaryotic cells and mitochondria developed from a mutualistic relationship?(8 votes)
- Whats the difference between symbiosis and endosymbiosis?(1 vote)
- Symbiosis is the interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
Endosymbiosis is symbiosis in which one of the symbiotic organisms lives inside the other. Hence the use of the prefix "endo".
Does that help?(5 votes)
- At, Sal says that the theory states that Mitochondria might have long ago been independent prokaryotes. If the mitochondria were independent at that time, how was protein synthesized in a eukaryote? 2:16(1 vote)
- Wouldn't eukaryotes still have ribosomes (site of protein synthesis) even without mitochondria? Most of the protein needed by an organism usually isn't synthesised in mitochondria, typically what's essential for protein synthesis is DNA, RNA and ribosomes.(4 votes)
- How do you know that the mitacondria and chloroplasts at some point joined together? What if the cell was just created that way, where there is a perfect relationship and that it was not just a "accident" as evolution states?(2 votes)
- That is why it is called a theory . The symbiotic theory is proven based on what we have seen and using logic (or/and probability).
What you say could be, however we mostly belive on such theory. That's science(2 votes)
- What other benefits did the prokaryotic mitochondria get from the host anaerobic eukaryotic ancestors other than additional protection?(2 votes)
- So Prokaryotic doesn't need partner to reproduce??(1 vote)
- Yes, a prokaryotic cell(like bacteria) can split into 2 prokaryotic cells, which can split into 4, 8, 16, 32 etc, and this is how they reproduce.(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] When we look
inside of eukaryotic cells, we see membrane-bound organelles, and some of these
membrane-bound organelles are particularly interesting. For example, here is a
diagram of a chloroplast that are found in plant or algal cells, and we know that this is where the photosynthesis takes place, but what's really interesting
above and beyond that is that it seems that chloroplasts have a lot of the machinery necessary for being a prokaryotic cell on its own. We don't see it acting on its
own, but it has its own DNA. It has ribosomes, which
we know are the site where we go from messenger RNA to protein. Similarly, another interesting
membrane-bound organelle that we see in eukaryotic cells, and this would include even animal cells and the cells in your and
my bodies, are mitochondria, and mitochondria are often viewed as the energy factories
of eukaryotic cells, where we can leverage oxygen
in order to produce ATP, and like chloroplasts,
mitochondria has its own DNA. It also has mitochondrial ribosomes. Here are some just diagrams of how mitochondria might look inside of a larger eukaryotic cell. And so, evolutionary biologists for many decades looked at this and said, well, why do these things exist? Why do they almost look like
prokaryotic cells on their own? And there's even examples
of prokaryotic cells, independent prokaryotic bacteria, that live in symbiosis
inside of other cells, and they look an awful lot like mitochondria and chloroplasts. And so, if we fast-forward to the 1960s, someone named Lynn Margulis comes on the scene with endosymbiosis theory, and her view is, is that these
membrane-bound organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts, if we go deep into our evolutionary past, say, two and a half billion years ago, their ancestors were actually independent prokaryotic organisms that could produce energy
aerobically, or using oxygen, and precursors to what
we would consider today to be modern eukaryotic cells that might have already had
some membrane-bound structures, like a nucleus and
maybe some other things, that they could only metabolize
things anaerobically. They couldn't leverage oxygen, while these other characters
could leverage oxygen, and then they could have become symbionts, where the one that could leverage oxygen to produce more energy would get engulfed into the larger cell, and that larger cell is able to provide nutrients and protection, while the smaller cell
that's engulfed inside of it is able to better
metabolize the nutrients and leverage oxygen to
produce more energy, and that over time, this
symbiotic relationship became even more connected, so that the smaller organism
could not operate by itself, that it lost some of its DNA that was necessary to act independently, and some of it might
have gotten incorporated into the DNA of the larger cell. And those smaller organisms
are what eventually evolved into what we consider
today to be mitochondria. This is a fascinating theory, and it's actually been proven out. When Lynn Margulis first
published this in the late 1960s, she wasn't taken that seriously,
but in the decades since, it's been validated as we've looked at the DNA structures of
mitochondria and chloroplasts, that this actually is
the most likely theory of how they emerged in our cells. And so, it's just a fascinating glimpse of evolution in general. We talk a lot about natural selection and the role of variation and mutations, but Lynn Margulis introduces another idea that could catalyze evolution, and that's that of symbiosis, and we see symbiosis
throughout the natural world. And her argument is, sometimes those symbionts
can become so codependent on each other that they
merge into one organism.