Level of life
Cell
The smallest unit that can live on its own. Every living thing is made of one or more cells.
Mitochondria
Convert energy from food into ATP, the cell's usable energy.Source: NHGRISource: Mitchell, 1961Source: Boyer, 1997
Also called mitochondria, powerhouse of the cell.
Structure
How Mitochondria connects
Mitochondria is part of
Mitochondria is the site of
Process
Cellular respiration
Breaking down sugars and other fuels, mostly in mitochondria, to make ATP.
Mitochondria evolved from
Organism or group
Bacteria
Small single-celled organisms without a nucleus, found almost everywhere on Earth. Most bacteria in the human body are harmless, and some are helpful.
Mitochondria is described by
Idea or model
Endosymbiosis
Mitochondria and chloroplasts descend from bacteria that came to live inside other cells long ago.
Studied in
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Mitochondria (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalCoupling of phosphorylation to electron and hydrogen transfer by a chemi-osmotic type of mechanism (opens the original in a new tab)
Mitchell P (1961). Nature 191:144-148.
The chemiosmotic hypothesis for how cells make ATP.
Historical paperTheory or modelThe ATP synthase: a splendid molecular machine (opens the original in a new tab)
Boyer PD (1997). Annual Review of Biochemistry 66:717-749.
Editorially reviewedReview