Conceptual Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics by Avise John C

Author:Avise, John C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780124202375
Publisher: Elsevier Science
Published: 2014-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Conceptual Revolution

Scientists had long suspected that particular organelles (notably mitochondria and chloroplasts) contain their own tiny snippets of genetic material, separate from the cell’s primary genome housed within its nucleus (see Chapter 13). In 1967, Lynn Margulis (writing at that time under the name Lynn Sagan) put forward a bold hypothesis that generally echoed Altmann’s sentiment by proposing that these DNA-containing organelles originated in the distant past via symbiotic mergers when free-living bacteria invaded or were engulfed by proto-eukaryotic host cells. In other words, the evolutionary precursors of mitochondria and chloroplasts literally had been elementary autonomous organisms prior to these endosymbiotic unions. This panoramic reinterpretation of the chimeric etiology of eukaryotic cells soon became known as the endosymbiont theory of organelle origins.

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