We are given the task of planning a new city. What would the list of necessities include? A medical care center, market area, garden, shopping center, educational institutes and so many in the list ! Apart from these, the proper supply of water and a well designed sewerage system tops the chart of requirements ! are we missing something important ? For every house to be functioning properly, don’t we need a power supply ? Of course yes ! Power supply is one of the most essential requirements of every home today. Without it, functioning of important and useful gadgets is not possible ! Similarly, in our cells, for the organelles to work, there has to be a continuous supply of energy. So which organelle takes the responsibility of supplying this energy ? It’s the mitochondria. The double membrane organelle is called as power house of the cell because it produces molecules which are the usable form of energy for the cell. What do we mean by usable form of energy in the first place ? Well, let’s say we want to buy something from a shop. What will we give the shopkeeper in return of the goods ? Can we just give him pieces of paper ? Of course not ! We give proper currency notes and not just pieces of paper. That is because although both are made up of paper, currency notes are the standardized forms with immense value. So we can say that these currency notes are the usable forms. If the same sized piece of paper is given, then that will not be considered as a currency. Because the usable form is the actual standard and accepted currency note! Similarly, the food we eat gives us energy. We know this. But the energy from the food is not in the usable form. So the enzymes in the mitochondria convert these energy molecules into usable molecules called the Adenosine triphosphate . It is abbreviated as ATP . So are these ATP molecules the usable forms ? That's Right. Cells can obtain energy when these ATP molecules are broken down. So how does this power house of the cell look like ? The mitochondria , has two membranes the outer membrane and the inner membrane. The outer membrane is PORUOS which means it allows the TRANSPORT of materials across itself. The inner membrane is slightly different and interesting to understand. The membrane is thrown into several folds and therefore has a LARGER surface area. These folds are referred to as “Cristae”. But what is the use of a larger surface area? A larger surface area would be a wider base for ATP generating chemical reactions. Because the larger area will harbor more enzymes that will produce ATP . The inner part of this membrane has a matrix which contains all the necessary enzymes for ATP production. Thus, larger the surface area, larger will be the amount of ATP molecules generated ! Apart from this, the organelle has its own DNA and ribosomes just like the NUCLEUS. Therefore mitochondria can make its own proteins and replicate on its own. That means make its copies independent of the other organelles. Now that we have got introduced to this extremely important organelle, let us have a look at one more interesting organelle in the list. Let us have a look at “VACUOLES ” in the next video!