From Old Adversaries To RegenMed Housemates: The 2-Billion-Year Story Of Mitochondria Transfer Via MSCs
Before two billion years ago, cyanobacteria emerged with a special talent: conversion of carbon dioxide and water into oxygen via the radiant energy of our young sun. They got so good at this, that—in a relatively short window of time (geologically speaking)—Earth’s atmosphere accumulated a vast quantity of oxygen.
This lead to proto-eukaryotic, archaebacteria-like critters, but they were not yet finished evolving into yeasts, placozoans, chordates, primates, and us.
One day, these grandmothers of the eukaryotes encountered fierce “barbarian” cells (i.e., purple non-sulfur bacteria) who sought to invade their neighbors’ cytoplasm and drain them dry of nutrients. Or, perhaps it was the opposite: the proto-eukaryotic scavengers were “hungry” and sought to engulf, to swallow and to digest these smaller, purple prokaryotes. Either way, what was once an adversarial relationship between the two species turned cooperative over millions of years. These two intermingled species even swapped genes, and evolved means of subtle, two-way molecular communication. Behold, the birth of mitochondria—not separate cells but “almost” fully domesticated organelles.
With greater oxygen levels, multicellular life, cell specialization, and organism body plans became possible, all because of that unique partnership between eukaryotic cells and their precious mitochondria. Our story does not end there, however. We’re beginning to discover still more chapters in the story of mitochondria and multicellular life.
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