Over 1 billion years ago, bacterial and Archaeal species came together, the bacteria being subsumed within the Archaeon and forming what we now know as the mitochondria, the "powerhouse" of the cell. ..
Over 1 billion years ago, bacterial and Archaeal species came together, the bacteria being subsumed within the Archaeon and forming what we now know as the mitochondria, the "powerhouse" of the cell. This union has led to all of today's eukaryotic species (plants, animals, and others). Our biology lab studies the localization patterns of different structures and organelles within the cell, using fruit flies as our model organism. Localization and organization patterns are captured and characterized using confocal microscopy. Here, we are studying the organization of the mitochondria, seen in green, within a sheet of cells dissected from the ovary of a fruit fly. This image illustrates the sheer density of mitochondria within cells. Using this data, we can design experiments to compare the organization of a different target of interest to the mitochondria and see how the two relate.
