Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: uki on 27/05/2011 02:38:03

Title: How do mitochondria reproduce?
Post by: uki on 27/05/2011 02:38:03

What mechanism uses mitocondrium to duplicate it self ?

mitocondrium  DNA, goes through the same mechanism as nuclear DNA ? [:I]

Title: Re: How do mitochondria reproduce?
Post by: CliffordK on 27/05/2011 07:37:49

Cells will have many mitochondria which will divide independently from cell division.  When the cell divides, the mitochondria are moved into each half of the dividing cell.

Mitochondrial replication will more resemble bacteria replication than nuclear replication.  I believe the mitochondria lack histones which wind and organize the nuclear DNA, as well as lacking centromeres, although there are notes of possibly related structures in bacteria.  However, I don't believe the DNA is organized into big chunky things recognizable as chromosomes during replication.

Otherwise, I believe the DNA replication fork would be similar between nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA.