Where do mitochondria come from in the plant cell?

Answer 1

There are three answers to this one!

1

Where do individual mitochondria come from?

All mitochondria arise from pre-existing mitochondria by a process very like the binary fission seen in prokaryotic cells (bacteria).

2

Where did an organism obtain its mitochondria?

All organisms that have two parents (i.e. reproduce sexually), including all plants, obtain their mitochondria from the female parent. This is because the male gamete contributes only a nucleus; the female gamete contributes all the structures and chemical compounds found in the cytoplasm.

3

Where did mitochondria originally come from?

There is a theory that mitochondria originated when a eukaryotic cell engulfed a prokaryotic cell (as happens! Think of phagocytes in animals) and for some reason the two cells formed a symbiotic relationship. The prokaryote provided the means of aerobic respiration, releasing far more ATP per molecule of glucose respired than happens in anaerobic respiration. The eukaryote provided all that the smaller cell needed for survival.

Answer 2

Mitochondria in plant cells are believed to have evolved from an ancestral aerobic bacterium that was engulfed by a primitive eukaryotic cell through an endosymbiotic event. This led to a symbiotic relationship where the bacterium evolved into the mitochondria we see in plant cells today.