Endosymbiotic Theories of Organelles Revisited

This book re-examines the endosymbiotic theory, and presents various related theories and hypotheses since the first proposal in 1905 by a Russian biologist. It also demonstrates that Lynn Margulis’s contribution to the current endosymbiotic is less than sometimes thought, and presents a plausible idea on how the organelles were formed. Explaining that Margulis’s initial work did not intend to show the endosymbiotic origin of chloroplasts and mitochondria, the book discusses their endosymbiotic origin in the light of current biology with the help of clear visual images. Further, by including numerous historical facts and details of phylogenetic analyses using recent genomic data that are largely unknown to many in the field, it offers deep insights into the history of biology, phylogenetic analysis, and the new evolutionary thinking. 2017 was the 50-year anniversary of Margulis’s first paper in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, and 2020 will mark 50 years since the publication her famous work Origin of Eukaryotic Cells, and as such this book offers a timely reconsideration ofthe works of Lynn Margulis and the endosymbiotic origin of organelles.  

• Endosymbiosis
• Organelle origin
• Symbiosis
• Constantin Mereschkowsky
• Lynn Margulis
• Chloroplast
• Phylogenetic analysis
• Origin of Eukaryotic Cells
• Plastids and mitochondria (organelles)
• Cyanobacteria
• Contemporary history of biology

• Department of Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

  Naoki Sato

The author is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. He obtained his PhD on biosynthesis of lipids in cyanobacteria from the same university, and then worked in various areas of research on cyanobacteria and chloroplasts, including molecular biology of DNA- and RNA-binding proteins and DNA/RNA polymerases, as well as bioinformatic studies involving software development, comparative genomics, and phylogenetic analysis. He has also worked in the fields of history and philosophy of biology, especially the history of modern biology and basic theory of life. 

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