Microbody

•A microbody (or cytosome) is a type of organelle that is found in the cells of plants, protozoa, and animals. Organelles in the microbody family include peroxisomes, glyoxysomes, glycosomes

•Microbodies contain enzymes that participate in the preparatory or intermediate stages of biochemical reactions within the cell.

•This facilitates the breakdown of fats, alcohols and amino acids.

•Generally microbodies are involved in detoxification of peroxides and in photo respiration in plants. Different types of microbodies have different functions

•Glyoxysomes are specialized peroxisomes found in plants (particularly in the fat storage tissues of germinating seeds) and also in filamentous fungi. Seeds that contain fats and oils include corn, soybean, sunflower, peanut and pumpkin

• Besides peroxisomal functions, glyoxysomes possess additionally the key enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase) which accomplish the glyoxylate cycle bypass

•Thus, glyoxysomes (as all peroxisomes) contain enzymes that initiate the breakdown of fatty acids and additionally possess the enzymes to produce intermediate products for the synthesis of sugars by gluconeogenesis. The seedling uses these sugars synthesized from fats until it is mature enough to produce them by photosynthesis

•The glycosome is a membrane-enclosed organelle that contains the glycolytic enzymes. The term was first used by Scott and Still in 1968 after they realized that the glycogen in the cell was not static but rather a dynamic molecule. It is found in a few species of protozoa including the Kinetoplastida