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Mitochondria and plastids contain their own ribosomes; these are more similar to those of bacteria (70S) than those of eukaryotes. [74] Proteins created by mitochondria and chloroplasts use N-formylmethionine as the initiating amino acid, as do proteins created by bacteria but not proteins created by eukaryotic nuclear genes or archaea. [75] [76]
The chloroplast is derived from a cyanobacterial primary endosymbiosis that began over one billion years ago. An oxygenic, photosynthetic free-living cyanobacterium was engulfed and kept by a heterotrophic protist and eventually evolved into the present intracellular organelle.
Both organelles, the mitochondria and chloroplasts (in photosynthetic organisms), are compartments that are believed to be of endosymbiotic origin. Other compartments such as peroxisomes , lysosomes , the endoplasmic reticulum , the cell nucleus or the Golgi apparatus are not of endosymbiotic origin.
The theory of endosymbiosis, as known as symbiogenesis, provides an explanation for the evolution of eukaryotic organisms. According to the theory of endosymbiosis for the origin of eukaryotic cells, scientists believe that eukaryotes originated from the relationship between two or more prokaryotic cells approximately 2.7 billion years ago.
Like mitochondria, chloroplasts have a double-membrane envelope, called the chloroplast envelope, but unlike mitochondria, chloroplasts also have internal membrane structures called thylakoids. Furthermore, one or two additional membranes may enclose chloroplasts in organisms that underwent secondary endosymbiosis , such as the euglenids and ...
The endosymbiosis theory of organogenesis became widely accepted in the early 1980s, after the genetic material of mitochondria and chloroplasts had been found to be significantly different from that of the symbiont's nuclear DNA. [24] In 1995, English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins had this to say about Lynn Margulis and her work:
Mitochondria were found to be most closely related to the α-purple subdivision of Gram negative bacteria and chloroplasts were most similar to cyanobacteria, similar to other data supporting the endosymbiosis theory. [6] Gram positive bacteria were found to be the most ancestral, which is also supported by other studies. [6]
Chloroplasts and mitochondria also replicate semi-autonomously outside of the cell cycle replication system via binary fission. [12] Consistent with the theory, decreased genome size within the organelle and gene integration into the nucleus occurred. Chloroplasts genomes encode 50-200 proteins, compared to the thousands in cyanobacterium. [13]