Relatives of the 1st mitochondria may be living in geothermal hot springs today
When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works . More than a billion years ago , one simple cell ended up trapped inside another and never leave , and its descendants went on to become mitochondria , the so - called powerhouse of cell . But even now , bacterial relatives of that first pin down cell — a protomitochondrion , as researchers call it — can be found float in modern hot springiness and other aquatic environments , a new study suggests ....