T
Tawantinsuyu
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Great question. I actually had this exact question when I was studying for my Microbiology exam recently. It turns out, mitochondria contains its own unique DNA and its own unique ribosomes and other transcription and translation factors required to synthesize proteins. They do this independently and separately from the rest of the cell. What's really interesting is that -- not only can they replicate their own DNA, but they possess unique ribosomes identical to prokaryotes (70s which consists of 50s and 30s subunits), which differs from the normal Eukaryotic 80S ribosome which we use to synthesize all other proteins. They can even divide independently of the cell, producing many copies of mitochondria within a given cell. This is especially common in tissues were ATP synthesis is crucial (muscle, liver, etc.). It's these similarities that sparked the endosymbiosis theory.
