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Among the many lines of evidence supporting symbiogenesis are that mitochondria and plastids contain their own chromosomes and reproduce by splitting in two, parallel but separate from the sexual reproduction of the rest of the cell; that the chromosomes of some mitochondria and plastids are single circular DNA molecules similar to the circular ...
Most plastids are photosynthetic, thus leading to color production and energy storage or production. There are many types of plastids in plants alone, but all plastids can be separated based on the number of times they have undergone endosymbiotic events. Currently there are three types of plastids; primary, secondary and tertiary.
The most common examples of obligate endosymbiosis are mitochondria and chloroplasts; however, they do not reproduce via mitosis in tandem with their host cells. Instead, they replicate via binary fission , a replication process uncoupled from the host cells in which they reside.
In land plants, the plastids that contain chlorophyll can perform photosynthesis, thereby creating internal chemical energy from external sunlight energy while capturing carbon from Earth's atmosphere and furnishing the atmosphere with life-giving oxygen. These are the chlorophyll-plastids—and they are named chloroplasts; (see top graphic).
Mitochondria are essentially universal in the eukaryotes, and with their own DNA somewhat resemble prokaryotic cells. Mitochondria are organelles in eukaryotic cells. The mitochondrion is commonly called "the powerhouse of the cell", [ 30 ] for its function providing energy by oxidising sugars or fats to produce the energy-storing molecule ATP .
Mitochondrial biogenesis is the process by which cells increase mitochondrial numbers. [1] [2] It was first described by John Holloszy in the 1960s, when it was discovered that physical endurance training induced higher mitochondrial content levels, leading to greater glucose uptake by muscles. [3]
Evidence suggests that mitochondria can also undergo fusion and exchange (in a form of crossover) genetic material among each other. Mitochondria sometimes form large matrices in which fusion, fission, and protein exchanges are constantly occurring. mtDNA shared among mitochondria (despite the fact that they can undergo fusion). [citation needed]
Currently, this "inside-out" hypothesis (which states that the alphaproteobacteria, the ancestral mitochondria, were engulfed by the blebs of an asgardarchaeon, and later the blebs fused leaving infoldings which would eventually become the endomembrane system) is favored more than the outside-in one (which suggested that the endomembrane system ...