Which eukaryotic organelle was thought that have evolved from symbiotic bacteria? Describe how this event took place.

Biology · College · Mon Jan 18 2021

Answered on

Correct answer is chloroplast and mitochondria. 

The hypothesis that eukaryotic cells evolved from a symbiotic association of prokaryotes—endosymbiosis—is particularly well supported by studies of mitochondria and chloroplasts, which are thought to have evolved from bacteria living in large cells. Both mitochondria and chloroplasts are similar to bacteria in size, and like bacteria, they reproduce by dividing in two. Most important, both mitochondria and chloroplasts contain their own DNA ,which encodes some of their components. The mitochondrial and Chloroplast DNAs are replicated each time the organelle divides, and the genes they encode are transcribed within the organelle and translated on organelle ribosomes. Mitochondria and chloroplasts thus contain their own genetic systems, which are distinct from the nuclear genome of the cell. Furthermore, the ribosomes and ribosomal RNAs of these organelles are more closely related to those of bacteria than to those encoded by the nuclear genomes of eukaryotes.

An endosymbiotic origin for these organelles is now generally accepted, with mitochondria thought to have evolved from aerobic bacteria and chloroplasts from photosynthetic bacteria, such as the cyanobacteria The acquisition of aerobic bacteria would have provided an anaerobic cell with the ability to carry out oxidative metabolism. The acquisition of photosynthetic bacteria would have provided the nutritional independence afforded by the ability to perform photosynthesis . Thus, these endosymbiotic associations were highly advantageous to their partners and were selected for in the course of evolution. Through time, most of the genes originally present in these bacteria apparently became incorporated into the nuclear genome of the cell, so only a few components of mitochondria and chloroplasts are still encoded by the organelle genomes