First eukaryotes found without a normal cellular power supply

The mitochondria with its double membrane, citric acid cycle, 36 ATP, and every other biology fact we can spill out, is important, but maybe not essential to us wonderful blobs of Eukaryotic cells. In fact, in a recent study, scientists have discovered the first Eukaryotas without a mitochondria. The theory is that mitochondria descended from a group of bacteria, which were eventually swallowed up by Eukaryotas. Scientists, and the Ap Biology free-response solutions, concluded that mitochondria and other such energy producing organelles were characteristics of Eukaryotas. But some scientists searched to prove each other wrong, going as far as testing a diarrhea-causing bacteria that seemed to have been missing their mitochondria; however, like many people, the problem just lay in the size, and they eventually found out that the mitochondria was in fact there, it was just small. Recently, though, scientists proposed another bacteria that may be missing their mitochondria, called Monocercomonoides. They obtained a sample from a fellow lab member, and found that the cell lacked mitochondrial genes and in fact did not have the proteins to allow mitochondria to function at all. The scientist working on this experiment, Anna Karnkowska, states that “The definition of eukaryotic cells is that they have mitochondria...We overturn this definition.” Apparently this bacteria, that lives in an oxygen depleted environment in our body, uses enzymes in its cytoplasm to digest food, as for the second function of the mitochondria, which creates iron and sulfur, the bacteria have worked around it be incorporating the DNA of other bacteria to complete this process. An interesting point to note is that the closest ancestor of the bacteria has a mitochondria, suggesting this development in fairly recent in it’s evolution.

This discovery is important for science for multiple reasons. Firstly, it makes the definition of Eukaryotas for scientists, and the college board, more flexible. It also suggests that Eukaryotic cells may be able to develop to exclude the mitochondria, allowing us to live in harsher environments or that our organelles will adapt and change according to our exquisite processed food diet. Overall, it weakens the definition scientists have placed on cells and other parts of the body, opening new doors to research and for finding the exception.

The author of this article was very to the point and straightforward in the middle of the article. She included a lot of quotes from Canadian scientists, who didn’t have to do with the experiment, but which I thought was nice because it further validated its point. Overall it was well written, and easy to understand, a bit dry at sometimes, but people usually are.

Leslie, Mitch. "First Eukaryotes Found without a Normal Cellular Power Supply." Science. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/first-eukaryotes-found-without-normal-cellular-power-supply>.