Describe one structure or metabolic process that purple bacteria or cyanobacteria might have dispensed with once they became endosymbionts in a eukaryotic cell. Describe one structure or metabolic process that purple bacteria or cyanobacteria might have dispensed with once they became endosymbionts in a eukaryotic cell. One of the most important features the bacteria might have dispensed with is the cell wall. One of the most important features the bacteria might have dispensed with is the gas vacuole. One of the most important features the bacteria might have dispensed with is the flagellum. One of the most important features the bacteria might have dispensed with is cytoplasmic membrane.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic, prokaryotic organisms which are green-blue in colour. They possess a simple structure at sub-cellular level and lack a nucleus. Whereas, eukaryotic cells are more complex, multicellular and have membrane-bound organelles; this includes a nucleus that holds their DNA.

During endosymbyosis with bacteria, the eukaryotic cell develops an organelle called chloroplast, which is then responsible for photosynthesis.

Hence on metabolic process the bacteria might dispense would be photosynthesis, or more specifically its thylakoid region (infolded regions of the plasma membrane responsible for photosynthesis).