Microbodies

Microbodies is a broad, umbrella term used for the many enzyme-carrying, membrane-enclosed vesicles found scattered through the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. Structurally, every microbody shares the same basic design: it is bound by a single unit membrane, unlike the double-membraned mitochondria, chloroplasts and nucleus described earlier in this section. The two organelles already covered in this chapter - peroxisomes and glyoxysomes - are both, formally, specific examples of microbodies; the term is simply a useful way to group these smaller, single-membrane, enzyme-carrying ve …