Time to recognise that mitochondria are bacteria?
The scientific community is comfortable with recognising mitochondria as organelles that happen to be descendants of bacteria. Here, I playfully explore the arguments for and against a phylogenetic fundamentalism that states that mitochondria are bacteria and should be given their own taxonomic family, the Mitochondriaceae. I also explore the consequences of recognizing mitochondria as bacteria for our understanding of the systemic response to trauma and for the prospects of creating transgenic mitochondria.
Centre for Systems Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. m.pallen@bham.ac.uk
Mark J
MJ
Pallen
D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013559:Symbiosis