Question

Organelles like plastids and mitochondria have their own genetic material. So when separated from from the cell can they survive individually ??

Answer 1

Mitochondria require many different proteins and molecules to carry out their function. The majority of these substances must be imported into the mitochondria after being taken up from the environment or transcribed from the nuclear DNA.

It is worth noting however that mitochondria do contain their own form of DNA & that there is considerable evidence to suggest that at one stage they were a form of prokaryotic cell which became incorporated into a eukaryotic cell. This is known as the endosymbiotic theory.