The 1960s was an important time for mitochondrial research, which saw many significant and enduring advances. During this period, Peter Mitchell developed the chemiosmotic proposal — the coupling of biological electron transfer to ATP synthesis. Although it ultimately won Mitchell a Nobel Prize, his work was highly controversial, and it was more than a decade before his ideas were accepted widely, leading some researchers to claim prior ownership of key elements of the ideas that still persist today.

The fact that mitochondria are central to the efficient provision of energy for eukaryotic cells is undisputed. It is generally accepted that the early and energetically inefficient eukaryotic cell was invaded more than a billion years ago by a bacterium containing a much more efficient system for utilizing available energy sources — the oxygen-consuming respiratory chain. The majority of the bacterial genetic information was subsequently transferred to the nucleus, transforming the bacterial symbionts into slave mitochondrial organelles.

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