A bacterium has provided new clues into how our cells evolved and came to possess energy-producing units.
New research from the University of Sydney investigated the bacterium Midichloria mitochondrii.
It found that mitochondria may have entered our cells though a parasitic bacterium that used a tail to swim and could survive with almost no oxygen.
The research sheds new light on a process recognised as one of the major transitions in the history of life on earth. It is published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Read more at University of Sydney