BIOENERGETICS OF TISSUES

This chapter describes the bioenergetics of tissues. Organisms that consist of well-differentiated cells are considered as higher organisms. Differentiation is the key to division of labor. Coherent assemblies of cells organized for division of labor can tackle many problems in the struggle for existence better than a mere collection of individual, undifferentiated cells. These problems include movement, feeding, defense, and propagation. The higher, tissue-forming organisms include the higher animals, the higher plants, and the higher fungi. The fundamental conservatism in the cellular bioenergetics of higher organisms is clearly a result of the perfection that had been reached before differentiation began. Increasingly, the powerful methods of modern biochemistry allow resolution of the differences in structure and function of the organelles for energy production between groups of higher organisms. The eobionts and the organisms had to show their efficiency largely in the struggle for energy.