Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids Learning goals: Students will understand that 1) mitochondria and plastids evolved through endosymbiosis, and 2) this evolutionary history helps us make sense of the characteristics of these organelles. For the instructor: This short slide set explains endosymbiosis. To integrate it best, use these slides immediately after you’ve discussed plant and animal cellular organelles. Slides 7 and 14 could be cut to save time. Each of the following slides comes with a sample script for the instructor. To review this script, download the PowerPoint file and view the Notes associated with each slide.
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own DNA Photo from Christian Kukat, Christian A. Wurm, Henrik Spåhr, Maria Falkenberg, Nils-Göran Larsson, and Stefan Jakobs. Super-resolution microscopy reveals that mammalian mitochondrial nucleoids have a uniform size and frequently contain a single copy of mtDNA. PNAS (33)
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own CIRCULAR DNA circular chloroplast chromosome linear mammalian chromosome
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own circular DNA their own ribosomes Image from Sukhjit Kaur, Reynald Gillet, Wen Li, Richard Gursky, and Joachim Frank. Cryo-EM visualization of transfer messenger RNA with two SmpBs in a stalled ribosome PNAS (44)
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own circular DNA their own ribosomes multiply by binary fission Mitochondria image © Rockefeller University Press, 1970; originally published in the Journal of Cell Biology 47: Chloroplast image from Shin-ya Miyagishima. Mechanism of Plastid Division: From a Bacterium to an Organelle. Plant Physiol :
What is unique about the structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own circular DNA their own ribosomes multiply by binary fission
Why are mitochondria and chloroplasts so weird? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids double membrane their own circular DNA their own ribosomes multiply by binary fission
Why are mitochondria and chloroplasts so weird? Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids Because of their evolutionary history! Both evolved via endosymbiosis.
Endosymbiosis in a series 1. Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids
Endosymbiosis in a series 1. Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids
Endosymbiosis in a series 2. Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids
Endosymbiosis in a series 2. Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids
Endosymbiosis in a series 3. Evolution connection: Mitochondria and Plastids dinoflagellate euglenoid Dinoflagellate photo by Minami Himemiya. Euglenoid photo by Rogelio Moreno.
References: Bhattacharya, D., Yoon, H. S., and Hackett, J. D. (2004). Photosynthetic eukaryotes unite: endosymbiosis connects the dots. Bioessays. 26: Chat J., Chalak L., and Petit R. J. (1999). Strict paternal inheritance of chloroplast DNA and maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in intraspecific crosses of kiwifruit. Theoretical & Applied Genetics. 99: Emelyanov, V. V. (2001). Rickettsiaceae, Rickettsia-like endosymbionts, and the origin of mitochondria. Bioscience Reports. 21: McFadden, G. I. (2001). Primary and secondary endosymbiosis and the origin of plastids. Journal of Phycology. 37: Yoon, H. S., Hackett, J. D., Ciniglia, C., Pinto, G., and Bhattacharya, D. (2004). A molecular timeline for the origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 21: