Question

(a) Name the scientists who discovered mitochondria.
(b) Which is the most indispensable in the life of a cell - mitochondria, chloroplasts or Golgi body? Why?

Answer 1

(a)

The word "mitochondria" is derived from Greek "mitos" means thread, and "chondrion" means granule or grain-like.

In 1890 Richard Altmann first established mitochondria as cell organelle and called them as bioblasts. The term mitochondria was first coined by Carl Benda in 1898. In 1904 Friedrich Meves made the first observation of mitochondria in plant cell and suggested that they contain proteins and lipids.

(b)

Mitochondria is the most indispensable in cell life because of the following reasons

1. It is found in animals as well as plants.
   
2. They are powerhouses of the cell which convert simple food molecule to ATP by oxidative phosphorylation. ATP is used to produce the energy needed for cell function.
   
3. They maintain calcium concentration within cell.
   
4. They help in building certain hormones like testosterone and estrogen
   
5. They detoxify ammonia in liver cells.
   
6. They carry out apoptosis or programmed cell death.
   
7. Deficiency of no. of mitochondria or presence of defective mitochondria can cause certain diseases like muscle weakness and pain, liver and cardiac diseases, seizures and susceptibility to infections.
   

Golgi bodies collect and dispatch the protein products of the endoplasmic reticulum.

Chloroplasts are plastids found only in plant cells and some protists such as algae.They conduct photosynthesis, where chlorophyll, a pigment, captures the energy from sunlight and stores it in the energy store molecules, ATP and NADPH while freeing oxygen from water.