Endosymbiosis

Every now and again, the scientific world makes discoveries or develops theories, which cause a complete change in scientific perspectives and thought, and this is referred to as a paradigm shift. This is exactly what happened in the 1960s when former Boston University biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis put forward her endosymbiotic theory, a theory that explains the evolutionary origin of organelles in modern day eukaryotic cells. While the theory may presently be viewed as a credible theory, this was not always the case. Both Margulis and her theory were highly questioned and even mocked by the scientific community throughout the 19th and 20th century as there was no way to support it with experimental results. Nonetheless, the advancement of scientific knowledge and technologies in recent years has allowed for the structural, molecular and biochemical examination of eukaryotic organelles to construct probable evidence of the theory. Fundamentally, the theory has had a vast impact on the scientific community, particularly the biological community by transforming the ideas of evolutionary biology.

The endosymbiotic theory is the accepted mechanism for how eukaryotic cells evolved from prokaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells are cells that contain membrane-bound organelles, such as the nucleus, while prokaryotic cells do not. These organelles include mitochondria and chloroplasts. While Lynn Margulis is credited with the endosymbiotic theory, she was not the first person to set forth theories on endosymbiosis. In fact, it was known to have first been presented by the Russian botanist Konstantin Mereschkowski in 1910, although the principal elements were described in a paper five years prior to the date. Mereschkowski was familiar with the ...

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...argulis was awarded the National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton in 2000 for her work, and she has since been regarded as “one of the most successful synthetic thinkers in modern biology,” While the endosymbiotic theory sets forth a likely theory and has quite a vast range of evidence behind it, there are still lots of questions unanswered and the lack of proof as to how every bit of the mechanism worked. The major problem is that there is no way to experimentally give evidence. Nonetheless, despite the controversy surrounding her theory, Margulis persisted and remained highly devoted to her work and worked very hard in order for the world to finally accept her theory, and biology can now suggest a rational explanation for the evolution of eukaryotes. Her research vastly helped initiate the status of the study of endosymbiosis from hypothesis to theory.