Mitochondria
The mitochondria is 2 to 10 micrometers long and between 0.5 and
1 micrometer thick. It is enclosed in a double membrane. The inner
membrane is called the cristae and it a
ctually
where the chemical energy ATP is synthesized. The mitochondria is found in
greater numbers in animal cells than in plant cells, but they are found in
plant cells too. The mitochondria is responsible for cell respiration, the
process of converting glucose into ATP the energy currency of the cell.
There may be several hundred per cell depending on the amount of cell
respiration that occurs in that cell. Mitochondria contains small amounts
of RNA and DNA, which lends credence to the line of thought that the
mitochondria may have been a single cell and evolved as a part of a eukaryotic
cell.