Why do mitochondria have their own DNA?

[Plazma Inferno!]

A new study may have found an answer to one of the big mysteries of cell biology. Scientists think that mitochondria were once independent single-celled organisms until, more than a billion years ago, they were swallowed by larger cells. Instead of being digested, they settled down and developed a mutually beneficial relationship developed with their hosts that eventually enabled the rise of more complex life, like today’s plants and animals.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/why-do-our-cell-s-power-plants-have-their-own-dna

A step forward endosymbiont theory?

 

[Billy T]

A new study may have found an answer to one of the big mysteries of cell biology. Scientists think that mitochondria were once independent single-celled organisms until, more than a billion years ago, they were swallowed by larger cells. Instead of being digested, they settled down and developed a mutually beneficial relationship developed with their hosts that eventually enabled the rise of more complex life, like today’s plants and animals.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/why-do-our-cell-s-power-plants-have-their-own-dna

A step forward endosymbiont theory?

This is decades old "news." Has long been the accpted POV.

 

[Walter L. Wagner]

This is decades old "news." Has long been the accpted POV.

Yes, ancient. This was being taught circa 1970 when I first studied biology in detail.

Here's what the article reads at the start: It’s one of the big mysteries of cell biology. Why do mitochondria—the oval-shaped structures that power our cells—have their own DNA, and why have they kept it when the cell itself has plenty of its own genetic material? A new study may have found an answer.

Pure hogwash. No mystery whatsoever, well studied explanations. Here's something from 40 years ago: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html

This is also true for chloroplasts, that also have their own DNA, for the same reason. Many of the genes are since migrated to the nucleus, to make the chloroplast/mitochondria more efficient/compact.

 

[danshawen]

http://www.pnas.org/content/94/15/7776.abstract

The "vagaries" of the molecular clock has presented biology with a wealth of case studies in the workings of evolution itself, and mitochondrial DNA has been instrumental in those studies.

One would expect relative mutation rates of proteins and nucleic acids would be very different in different species and in different kingdoms due to differences in rates of successful reproduction, lifespans, and other mitigating environmental, predatory, and other factors intimately involved with biome evolution.

Since about 11,000 years ago, there seems to have been an uptick in mutation rates of human mitochondria, for whatever environmental, population, and survival reasons which may have contributed.

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm

 

[timojin]

Does a red corpuscle have mitochondria ? Since the red corpuscle have lost its nucleus , who governs the cell ?

 

[Ophiolite]

The article appears to be addressing why the DNA has not transferred to the nucleus, not how it originally got into the cell. Plazma's introduction was misleading, not the article.