Mitochondria and Mitochondrion related organelles in Parasitic Protozoa-An Overview

Abstract

Mitochondria and related organelles are ubiquitous among eukaryotes which may have arisen as a consequence of the endosymbiosis of an ancestral α-proteobacterium by an ancestral eukaryote. With the passing of time, different organisms developed different types of strategies to thrive in hypoxic environments and microbial eukaryotes (protists) are no exception as these possess metabolically distinct mitochondria called mitochondrion related organelles (MROs). Among medically and veterinary important parasitic protists, there are a variety of organisms possessing MROs that reside in anaerobic niche in the body. The transformation from aerobic mitochondria to MROs occurred in independent lineages as a consequence of convergent evolution under anaerobic/microaerophilic conditions. Therefore, this review highlights the recent advances of MROs in parasitic protists.