Supplement

Organelle literally means "little organs". As the body is composed of various organs, the cell, too,
has "little organs" that perform special functions. They are membrane-bound compartments or
structures of a cell. A eukaryotic cell contains many organelles, for example, the nucleus,
endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and chloroplast (plastid). However, not all
these organelles are found in only one cell or in an organism. The chloroplast, for instance, is
abundant in plant cells but not in animal cells. Prokaryotes, which were believed to have no
organelles, have been recently described to possess organelles. Examples are carboxysome (a
protein-shell compartment for carbon fixation in some bacteria), chlorosome (a light harvesting
complex in green sulfur bacteria), magnetosome (found in magnetotactic bacteria), and thylakoid
(in some cyanobacteria).

There are organelles that have their own DNA apart from the nucleus and are suggested to have
originated from endosymbiotic bacteria according to the endosymbiotic theory. These organelles are
mitochondria and plastids. The stricter definition of organelle does not include biomolecular
complexes such as ribosomes and nucleosomes because they are not bounded by membranes. A
more restrictive definition of organelle does not consider single-membrane bounded cytoplasmic
structures, such as lysosomes.

Word origin: New Latin organella, diminutive of Medieval Latin organum, organ of the body, from
Latin, implement, tool

pro-

(Science: prefix) Prefix (from both greek and latin) with many meanings including before, in front
of, preceding, on behalf of, in place of, and the same as. Used as a word, pro of course means
professional and, in medicine, it is short for prothrombin.

Eu-

(Science: prefix) a prefix meaning good, well or stable. The opposite of dys-, caco-.