but good news for that individual mitochondrion, because less pollution builds up and it survives longer.
Recall that we are talking about evolution. Taking the Selfish Gene approach, it's all about genes making copies of themselves. Only the germ-line cells matter, the rest of the cells in your body are irrelevant to evolution except for their assistance to sperm and eggs. The somatic cells never survive past the current generation, they do not replicate across generations.
Your mitochondrion might well live longer, but it still won't make it to the next generation. The only way for it to propagate itself is to propagate its DNA and that involves being as helpful to the host as possible, even at the cost of "personal sacrifice". Greedy mitochondrions, just as greedy somatic cells, will just be washed out by evolution. They do not win.
Recall that we are talking about evolution.
I'm well aware. If you don't think that evolution describes the changes in the population of mitochondria in a cell, then I think you're taking an overly narrow view of evolution!
Your mitochondrion might well live longer, but it still won't make it to the next generation.
I happen to be male; none of my mitochondria will make it to the next human generation anyway. (You... did know that mitochondrial lines have different DNA than their human hosts, right?)
But for the relevant population--mitochondria within ...
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