Mitochondria

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth. Inside each cell of every complex organism there are structures known as mitochondria. The 19th century scientists who first observed them thought they were bacteria which had somehow invaded the cells they were studying. We now understand that mitochondria take components from the food we eat and convert them into energy. Mitochondria are essential for complex life, but as the components that run our metabolisms they can also be responsible for a range of diseases - and they probably play a role in how we age. The DNA in mitochondria is only passed down the maternal line. This means it can be used to trace population movements deep into human history, even back to an ancestor we all share: mitochondrial Eve.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Mike Murphy 2 episodes
  Professor of Mitochondrial Redox Biology at the University of Cambridge
• Florencia Camus No other episodes
  NERC Independent Research Fellow at University College London
• Nick Lane 5 episodes
  Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London

Reading list

• The Energy of Life
  Guy C. Brown (Flamingo, 2000) Google Books →
• The Machinery of Life
  David Goodsell (Springer, 2009) Google Books →
• Mitonuclear Ecology
  Geoffrey E. Hill (Oxford University Press, 2019) Google Books →
• Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
  Nick Lane (Oxford University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
  Nick Lane (W. W. Norton, 2015) Google Books →
• Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
  Nick Lane (W. W. Norton, 2022) Google Books →
• The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
  Siddhartha Mukherjee (Bodley Head, 2022) Google Books →
• Mitochondria
  Immo E. Scheffler (Wiley, 2007) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Cell
  
  13 Sep, 2012 570 Biology
• Enzymes
  
  1 Jun, 2017 570 Biology
• Microbiology
  
  8 Mar, 2007 570 Biology
• Photosynthesis
  
  14 May, 2020 570 Biology
• Bacteriophages
  
  7 Jul, 2024 570 Biology
• Macromolecules
  
  29 Dec, 2011 570 Biology
• Genetic Determinism
  
  23 Sep, 1999 570 Biology
• Genetic Mutation
  
  6 Dec, 2007 570 Biology
• Neuroscience in the 20th century
  
  24 Dec, 1998 610 Medicine and health
• Vitalism
  
  16 Oct, 2008 570 Biology

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m001md34

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md34

Auto-category: 570 (Biology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Inside each cell of every complex organism, there are structures known as mitochondria.