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The primary function of plant mitochondria is respiration, which is why they are often referred to as “powerhouses of the cell”. Besides their central role in energy metabolism, plant mitochondria are also involved in the photorespiratory C2 cycle and in the provision of carbon skeletons to support efficient nitrogen assimilation. All these functions are catalyzed by mitochondrial proteins. Their composition, abundance and interactions in plant mitochondria are the subject of this thesis. In yeast, Trypanosomes, and several mammalian cell types, mitochondria are organized as extensive mitochondrial networks, resulting in a situation where a cell only hosts few but large mitochondria. In plants, hundreds of small mitochondria are only connected by fusion and fission over time but not physically. Hence, the organelles form individual, functional units. Paradoxically, their biochemical and physiological characterization focuses on large organelle populations and thereby disregards the properties of the individual mitochondrion. This partially is based on the fact that cell biological approaches capturing structural features of plant mitochondria often are of limited value for understanding their physiological properties. Chapter 2.1 of this thesis models the protein content of a single mitochondrion by combining proteomics with classical cell biology. Besides other insights into the function of a single plant mitochondrion, it could be shown that proteins involved in ATP synthesis and transport make up nearly half of the plant mitochondrial proteome. The five protein complexes of the OXPHOS system contribute most to this segment of the mitochondrial proteome, underlining the overall importance of mitochondrial ATP synthesis for the entire plant cell. Despite the central function of OXHPOS components in plants, certain unicellular parasites and yeasts apparently do not need a complete OXPHOS system. Intriguingly, it recently has been reported that the mitochondrial genome of the multicellular parasitic flowering ...