Question

Consider the following characteristics:

These act like a digestive system, taking in nutrients, breaking them down, and creating energy rich cells. Some cells have several thousand of them floating freely, while others will have very few. If a cell feels it needs more energy to survive, it will create more of these. Sometimes they can grow larger or combine with others. This is all based on the needs of the cell.

Based on the characteristics above, what can you conclude about what is being described?

A) It must be lysosomes.
B) It must be mitochondria.
C) It must be chloroplasts.
D) It must be ribosomes.

Answer 1

The correct answer is option (B) It must be mitochondria.

Mitochondria are called the power houses of the cell. It is because these organelles act similar to the digestive system. They take in nutrients, break down and digest them producing energy rich substances called the adenosine triphosphate (ATP). A few cells like the muscle cells have numerous mitochondria as they need lot of energy. The number of mitochondria is based on the energy requirement of the cell. Mitochondria can grow, divide and even fuse with the other mitochondria.