van der Giezen Mark, Tovar Jorge
School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
EMBO Rep. 2005 Jun;6(6):525-30. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400440.
Mitochondria are the main sites of biological energy generation in eukaryotes. These organelles are remnants of a bacterial endosymbiont that took up residence inside a host cell over 1,500 million years ago. Comparative genomics studies suggest that the mitochondrion is monophyletic in origin. Thus, the original mitochondrial endosymbiont has evolved independently in anaerobic and aerobic environments that are inhabited by diverse eukaryotic lineages. This process has resulted in a collection of morphologically, genetically and functionally heterogeneous organelle variants that include anaerobic and aerobic mitochondria, hydrogenosomes and mitosomes. Current studies aim to determine whether a central common function drives the retention of mitochondrial organelles in different eukaryotic organisms.
线粒体是真核生物中生物能量产生的主要场所。这些细胞器是一种细菌内共生体的残余物，该内共生体在15亿多年前进入宿主细胞并定居下来。比较基因组学研究表明，线粒体在起源上是单系的。因此，最初的线粒体内共生体在不同真核生物谱系所栖息的厌氧和需氧环境中独立进化。这一过程产生了一系列形态、遗传和功能上异质的细胞器变体，包括厌氧和需氧线粒体、氢化酶体和纺锤剩体。目前的研究旨在确定是否有一个核心的共同功能驱动不同真核生物中线粒体细胞器的保留。
