What is meant by the endosymbiont theory in relation to differences between prokaryote and eukaryote ?
The endosymbiont theory is an idea that people have for the origin of the eukaryotic cell and ultimately multicellular organisms. I presume you already no the fundamental differences between pro and eukaryotic cells? The theory suggests that some of the key organelles in eukaryotic cells eg the mitochondira, chloroplasts and pastids where originally themselves prokaryotic organisms and could survive in the environment on their own. This makes sense as mitochondria are energy produces and could fund their own ‘being’ and all of them have their own DNA etc. Then at a point in time they joined to a eukaryotic cell possibly in a sort of symbiotic relationship, where the cell benefited from the mitochondria’s energy and the mitochondria benefited from cells ‘safety’ etc. So the jump from prokaryote to eukaryote was effectively ‘teamwork’. Therefore the endosymbiont theory can help explain the differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes: *The theory emphasises the prokaryotes ability to b
