Difference Between Mitochondria and Chloroplast
|
Mitochondria |
Chloroplasts |
Location | found in almost every eukaryotic cell, including those of animals and plants. | found only in some protists, algae, and plant cells. |
Size and shape | usually 1 to 10 micrometers in length and shaped like a sausage. | typically 2 to 10 micrometers long, shaped as a disc or oval, |
Membrane structure | consists of an outer and an inner membrane, separated by an intermembrane space. | includes a thylakoid membrane, an inner membrane, and an outer membrane. |
Function | uses oxidative phosphorylation to produce ATP. | utilizes photosynthesis to convert light energy to chemical energy. |
Pigments | don’t contain any pigments | contains pigments such as chlorophyll |
DNA | Contains its own circular DNA, which is similar to bacterial DNA. | Contains its own circular DNA, which is similar to bacterial DNA. |
Replication | binary fission replication | binary fission or budding replication |
Enzymes and pathways | involved in the electron transport chain, the citric acid cycle, and beta-oxidation | involved in the light-dependent and light-independent reactions of photosynthesis |
Oxygen dependence | utilizes oxidative phosphorylation, which requires oxygen, to produce ATP. | does not need oxygen but some processes can use it |
Endosymbiotic origin | likely descended from an ancestral eukaryotic cell that engulfed a free-living bacterium. | likely descended from an ancestral eukaryotic cell that engulfed a free-living photosynthetic cyanobacterium. |
Difference Between Mitochondria and Chloroplast
Mitochondria and chloroplasts are two organelles found in eukaryotic cells that are involved in energy conversion and metabolism. While chloroplasts are involved in the process of photosynthesis, where they transform light energy into chemical energy in the form of glucose, mitochondria are in charge of producing energy in the form of ATP through oxidative phosphorylation.