Do “Bacterial Mitochondria” Exist? A Bibliometric Assessment

抄録

In basic biology, it is well known that bacteria do not contain mitochondria, while eukaryotic cells contain mitochondria of prokaryotic origin. Despite this, some literature states that bacteria do have mitochondria. To quantitatively assess the presence of the term “bacterial mitochondria” in Crossref DOI-indexed journals, Google Scholar and PubPeer were sourced on 25 February 2026 and screened, limiting the dataset primarily to literature published in 2021–2026. A total of 64 texts were manually verified as carrying a single mention of “bacterial mitochondria” in their PDF texts. While 43 texts indicated a source, 21 did not. Only four of the 43 sources also used the term “bacterial mitochondria”. Unless robust and irrefutable proof is provided by the microbiological community that bacteria harbor mitochondria—thereby revolutionizing existing basic biological knowledge—the scientific, peer-reviewed literature that was assessed in this analysis can be assumed to contain statements of factual error, negatively impacting their use in biology education as accurate or reliable sources of knowledge.