ume that you ate a salad that contained some compounds that upset your stomach but still managed to be absorbed and eventually m
oved into liver cells. The plant compounds are noxious and potentially toxic to the liver cells. Which organelle would be expected to target and detoxify the plant compounds?
A peroxisome is a membrane-bound organelle usually found in the cytoplasm of almost all eukaryotic cells. It is an oxidative organelle.
Eukaryotes are comprised of one or more cells that contain peroxisomes. The organelles were first discovered by the Belgian scientist Christian de Duve, who was same person that discovered lysosomes.
Peroxisomes contain a variety of enzymes, which primarily function together to get rid of toxic substances in the cell, and in particular, hydrogen peroxide which a common byproduct of cellular metabolism. These organelles contain enzymes that convert the hydrogen peroxide to water, making it remain safe in order to be released back into the cell. Some types of peroxisomes, such as those in liver cells, detoxify alcohol and several other harmful compounds by transferring hydrogen from the poisons to molecules of oxygen (known as oxidation). Other perixosomes are more important for their ability to initiate the production of phospholipids, which are typically used in the formation of membranes.
