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Known for over a century, mitochondria have become during the last three decades an important subject of research within several disciplines of experimental biology . For the cytologist, they represented the ideal test objects for applying electron microscopy to the exploration of cellular ultrastructure and for the elaboration of tissue-fractionation techniques with the aim of isolating cytoplasmic organelles. For the biochemist, the identification of mitochondria as the site of cell respiration and respiration-linked phosphorylation implied a decisive step towards the resolution and reconstitution of these processes at a molecular level and the elucidation of their relationship to cellular membranes. For the physiologist, mitochondria afforded the first opportunity for an experimental approach to structure-function relationships, in particular those involved in active transport, vectorial metabolism, and metabolic control mechanisms on a subcellular level. And for the molecular biologist, the discovery of mitochondrial DNA and protein synthesis and the study of mitochondrial biogenesis opened up a new chapter of eukaryotic gene expression .
Ernster et al. (Sun,) studied this question.