Mitochondria
Mitochondria
MicrobeWikii, the student-edited microbiology resource
Description and Significance
The mitochondrion is an extremely interesting and important organelle in eukaryotic cells. It is the only organelle (other than the nucleus, of course) that has its own DNA independent of the cell's chomosomal DNA; because of this and the fact that the organelle divides independent of the cell, the mitochondrion is thought to have once been a bacterial cell that colonized a eukaryotic cell. Among other things, it performs cellular respiration, has an eletron transport system that occurs across membranes, and produces ATP.
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