Mitochondria Are Alive
11th November 2024
The physical world is an intricate dance between matter, information, and energy. Recognizing that mitochondria are alive will open new horizons into how we learn about, and build with, biology.
The cells within our body are the remnants of an ancient alliance.
In a 1967 paper called “On the Origin of Mitosing Cells,” American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis proposed an idea that, upon first hearing, seems ludicrous. Her paper, in fact, was rejected by 12 different journals before it was published.
Margulis argued that one-and-a-half billion years ago, a primitive eukaryotic cell engulfed an oxygen-utilizing bacterium. But rather than digesting this bacterium — or conversely, the bacterium destroying its newfound host — the two cells gradually entered into an endosymbiotic relationship; the host provided nutrients and protection to the bacterium, and the bacterium supplied energy to the host. Margulis argued that this endosymbiosis event was a seminal “innovation engine” for biological systems, ultimately leading to the modern mitochondrion and chloroplast.