This organelle discharges energy from food, this particular process is known as cellular respiration. According to Wikipedia’s article on cellular respiration, the mitochondria is a process that happens in the cells of organisms to transfer energy from food to adenosine triphosphate or ATP and then release the waste or not needed products. There are reactions that take place in this process and they are called catabolic reactions, these reactions “break large molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy in the process, as weak so-called high-energy bonds are they are replaced by stronger bonds”(Cellular Respiration). This process of respiration is one of the major ways a cell takes in energy to fuel cellular activity. The energy this is stored in ATP, can be used to fuel different processes. The function of ATP is the transport of energy within cells, like the transportation of molecules across cell membranes. This chemical process is driven by the mitochondria because this process requires energy to function, and the energy comes ATP which is produced by the …show more content…
According to the article on Mitochondrial DNA, it has 37 genes within it and all of these are necessary for the mitochondria to function. These functions include providing instructions for enzymes to create the cell’s main energy source ATP. Also the remaining genes take part in the transfer of tRNA and rRNA. These types of RNA help construct amino acids into functional proteins. These proteins that are generated are involved in the cellular respiration process, which is the process of converting chemical energy from food to ATP. ATP is the main source of energy that travels throughout the cell and provides the cell with constant energy. Even though there is a very small amount of mitochondrial DNA, this DNA helps the mitochondria function and produce ATP. Without it, our cells wouldn’t have the energy to function and so we wouldn’t be able to