Mitochondria And Chloroplast Essay :: essays research papers fc

I. Introduction     Out of all the organelles thereare two that have hypnotised microbiologists for the past hundred years. Thefirst is the mitochondria, nicknamed the "powerhouse of the cell." The secondis the chloroplast in plant cells that have functions similar to those of themitochondria. What do these organelles do? What are the similarities and differencesof these organelles? This essay will sponsor you to understand these two fascinatingorganelles.II. Mitochondria     Mitochondria are small cytoplasmic organelles.They are five to 10 micrometers long and one to .5 micrometers wide. They mainfunction is to provide button for cell activities. They house the respiratoryenzymes that convert oxygen and the products of fat, carbohydrate, and proteinmetabolism into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and guanosine triphosphate (GTP),chemicals that have high-energy bonds. They are hollow all demur for a folded commercial enterprise of mat ter that contains the ribonucleic mordant (RNA) or deoxyribonucleicacid (DNA) of the cell.     Mitochondrion make use of a process known as oxidationto make fat acids and pyruvate acid into (indirectly) ATP and Pi (inorganicphosphate). The process goes as follows1)      Oxidation of pyruvate acidinto acetyl coenzyme A. 2)      Oxidation of fat acids into acetyl coenzyme A.3)     Oxidationof acetyl coenzymes from step one and two into carbon dioxide and NADH2.4)      Oxidationof NADH2 by oxygen forming water.5)      Synthesis of ATP coupled to NADH2 oxidationby process of oxidative phosphorylation.Most of this is self explanatoryexcept for the last step (5). The final step contains a phrase "coupled to."This means that the compound (NADH2) must be present and have been oxidizedfor the synthesis of ATP, similar to a catalysts presence of some reactions.&n bsp    Althoughthe mitochondrions major purpose is to supply the cell with the much neededATP, it has others. Included in this list are normality metabolism, porphyrinsynthesis and steroid hormone synthesis.III. Chloroplasts     Chloroplastsare complicated green organelles that occur within the cytoplasm of plant cells.They are the main sites of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the change oflight energy, CO2 water into sugar which is used as food. They are disk shapedorganelles and are surrounded by two layers of membrane that enclose the watery interior or stroma. Inside the stroma there are green dots called grana (grains)that hold chlorophyll.     As with the mitochondrion the Chloroplasts use radiantor solar energy to make a product. In this case hexose.1) The pigment complexesin the chloroplasts (including but not limited to chlorophyll) collect      solarenergy.2) The light energy gathered in the fir st step is used to run an electrontransport chain that      oxidizes water into 0xygen. NADP is reduced.3) ATPsynthesis is coupled to the electron transport train.