Peroxisomes are organelles in both animal-like and plant-like cells.
While they perform similar jobs as the organelle mitochondria, unlike the mitochondria that has multiple membranes, peroxisomes have only one wall membrane that’s used to maintain its structure.
If you look under a high powered microscope you would notice that peroxisomes resemble the lysosome organelles.
The main job of peroxisomes is in the transformation of the nutrients sent to a cell into energy that the cell needs.
There are a lot of peroxisomes inside each cell and they have quite a few other jobs that they perform.
The quantity of peroxisomes in a cell depends entirely on the cell type and function.
There are a lot of peroxisomes in cells that support organs that work to detoxify or cleanse the body as well as in digestion such as kidney and liver cells.
Scientists have noted that there are few to none in any cells that aren’t involved in the digestion process and none at all in the red blood cells in our bodies.
Turning food into usable energy is an important responsibility. When a cell collects nutrients, peroxisomes step in to break them down so that they are energy for the cell.
Most of the nutrients peroxisomes changes are “fatty acids.” Peroxisomes act differently, depending upon the cell type.
In animal-like cells, mitochondria and peroxisomes work closely in the process of creating energy from fatty acids. However, in plant-like cells, peroxisomes work alone to break down the fatty acids.
Changing fatty acids to energy is a complex process and peroxisomes accomplish this in two steps; each one creates energy for the plant or animal to make us of:
They first break the fatty acid down into hydrogen peroxide.
This part of their job is the reason that they have their name. This is a chemical that is toxic to the cell so the peroxisome absolutely has to accomplish the second step.
The next action is to break out the hydrogen peroxide into its individual elements of oxygen and water. These elements are used by the cell in other jobs, so nothing goes to waste.
One of the important things to remember about peroxisomes is that they are one of the few organelles that continue to grow. Once a peroxisome reaches a particular size it will divide into two smaller peroxisomes.
Peroxisomes are in a lot of locations in an organism to help in supplying energy. In plant-like cells peroxisomes are in the seed cells to give the cells energy for growth.
However, the peroxisomes found in leaf cells are responsible for the energy needed for photosynthesis. Peroxisomes also have additional duties in plant cells as they are responsible for the recycling of carbon.
Some types of specialized peroxisomes have been found in plants that have jobs involving converting fatty acids to carbohydrates.
The job of peroxisomes is to supply energy for whatever the need is for the cell and the organism.
Peroxisomes Quiz
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