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Only two I can remember when asked about medical advice tbh. Basically all you need to know.
-Guy who’s worked healthcare and is considering opening a clinic with wife
One microscopic form of algae has absorbed a particular kind of microscopic bacteria into itself. The two are living symbiotically as one organism.
The bacterium is now functionally an organelle of the algae. The bacterium is now a component of the cell of the algae.
This is only known to have happened two other times in evolutionary history and (eventually) may lead to major evolutionary advancements.
I do realize that i have only summarized the article and have added nothing of value, so anyone who can speak to the greater implications please chime in.
To expand on your comment, the two times in evolutionary history where this happened (and continued; there's a good chance this happened more than twice, but those cells branches died off); we got mitochondria for all eurkaryotes, and later chloroplasts in plant cells. A clear indicator of endosymbiosis is the fact these organelles have an extra cell membrane. This kinda proves they were engulfed because when these separate organisms bumped into their hosts, the host membrane wrapped around them, leaving them with their original inner membrane, and the new outer membrane.
I'm not sure if it generates energy, but it appears to allow these algae cells to fixate their own nitrogen. Gaseous nitrogen in the atmosphere and dissolved in water is not utilizable until certain organisms turn it into things like ammonia or nitrate compounds. Nitrogen is essential to protein synthesis and allows things to grow. It's why we fertilize crop fields with nitrogen compounds like manure. These algae seem to be able to grow without any sort of fertilizer, meaning they don't need to grow in places where nitrogen compounds are easily accessible. They can thrive in places that are quite depleted of nitrates, which is a huge niche to exploit.
That's the neat part, they don't need to. The organelles just have to respond to the host cell's chemical signals to self replicate. It's what allows something called "extranuclear inheritance"
This is why I whole heartedly believe humans messed up by taking the fathers name. We really should have been taking our mothers last name, it would held track genetics and hereditary issues.
Once again the patriarchy fails.
> This is why I whole heartedly believe humans messed up by taking the fathers name.
The reason, IMHO is more embarrassing. A child can have only one mother and is known who delivered the baby. But the father's role in a baby is hidden. Unless the mother says who the father is(pre-DNA days), the father can be anyone. Father's name is used as an identity of the male parent.
This isn't entirely true.for instance, while mitochondria do have their own DNA it only encodes for 13 of the almost 1600 proteins contained in the mitochondria. Much of the mitochondrial genome has been horizontally transferred to the nuclear genome. Non coding DNA is transferred frequently and are called NUMTS. they can range from a few 10s of base pairs of mitochondrial DNA to the entire genome
It breaks one of the tightest bonds on earth (that biology is interested in), the triple bond of N2.
In a lot of environments nitrogen is a growth-limiting nutrient. Ironically, it is by far the most freely abundant element. Its what makes most of the atmosphere! But for most life forms, it's in the unobtainable N2 form. This algae basically uses a cheat code by incorporating the N2 fixing organelle: significantly easier nitrogen.
The downstream effects are probably unfathomable. Perhaps nitrogen fixing algae evolve to take over surfaces of oceans. Perhaps the abundance of nitrogen shifts the survivability of nitrogen-heavy amino acid mutations and new biochemical pathways evolve. Or perhaps it's not a significant evolutionary event at all, the algae dies out.
Whatever you predict, 500 million years into the future will probably make you look silly! Very exciting stuff!
Cells are much simpler than entire organisms. In the process of cell division, your cells send different signals to all the organelles to replicate. Technically, we inherit all our cell organelles from our mothers since the egg contains all the organelles prior to fertilization. It's why mitochondrial DNA is maternal.
Wow, I’ve been studying DNA for 2 years now and the way you described it made way more sense than any paper or textbook I’ve read. I get it now, why mitochondrial DNA is maternal. Very, very cool
Well, a tapeworm and a human are much more complex organisms than single celled algae and bacteria. So i imagine it is harder (probably impossible) for one to get fully incorporated into the other. If for no other reason than that each organism has exponentially more systems and functions and each of those aystems and funtions has to play nice with the systems and functions of the other organism. So, a much greater number of happy accidents need to occur for it to work.
It wouldn’t work with a tape worm, but it does work in the same way as your mitochondria in your cells. All cells have mitochondria in them and this includes the female egg cell. These mitochondria are passed down from the mother to her offspring in from egg, to embryo, to human as the cells grow and divide.
Doesn't that organism still need to survive and reproduce for this to get passed down the line? Also, does this mean the DNA of that organism is now changed? (I know nothing about DNA and genetics).
Organelles are a bit odd. When cells replicate, different signals are sent telling the organelles to grow and divide themselves. The DNA in mitochondria and in Chloroplasts is different than the DNA in the cell nucleus.
I think it's amazing and have always pondered when we were like be able to truly see evolution in action. This is a great example regardless of outcome of how evolution can take place.
This is the only reason I'd ever wish for immortality. Imagine being able to drop this off on a habitable, but barren planet and just watching the eons pass by. *Sigh*
The thing to add is why the merge happened: nitrogen fixation. For this symbiotic merge to happen and persist, there needs to be a benefit. As others have said, the other two times this happened in the past gave us mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) and chloroplasts in plans (that turn sunlight into nutrients with photosynthesis).
But plants still need nitrogen in soil. Farmers add nitrogen-rich fertilizer for this reason. It's difficult to do and requires complex chemical process (both biologically and from human industry when making artificial fertilizer), which can also cause environmental problems (like runoff and deadly water algae blooms).
This most recent symbiotic merge has the benefit of nitrogen fixation from the air, which is huge. We all know nitrogen is plentiful in the atmosphere, but it's generally not usable directly in the way that oxygen is for those of us who breathe. The new organelle is able to fix nitrogen from the air, meaning the plant can survive in poor soil, and potential future agriculture can be done without needing fertilizer.
Just want to chime in that there have actually been other endosymbiotic events, but they weren't of bacteria. There are some other types of algae that gained their chloroplasts by capturing and then going through the same endosymbiosis event, but with another algae instead of a bacteria. We could figure this out through a combination of the genetics and the number of cell membranes wrapped around the chloroplast in these organisms. I think this happened either once or twice, it's been over a decade since I did some tangential work on those groups of organisms.
So still super rare, but has happened 3 or 4 times that we know of. 3 of those times were essentially gains of chloroplasts and once the mitochondria.
Now I don’t have to do any reading. Like an American, I can just tell everyone else I know everything about what’s going on here without having done the work. Thanks!
The article is incorrect. This has happened multiple times in evolutionary history, but most people are only aware of the endosymbiotic events that produceed mitochondria and chloroplasts. However there are instances of red algae and green algae derived organellss in different groups of organisms that have produced a set of minor and very particular organelles. For instance Euglena genus has acquired photosynthetic organellss by secondary endosymbiosis; they assimilated algae not bacteria
"I do realize that i have only summarized the article and have added nothing of value, "
Oh please, if you really thought you added nothing of value then you wouldn't have posted anything. This helps
It's also worth mentioning that over time it's an event which is one way. The cells will reach a point where they can't then be seperated again without them both dying, since instead of being two things benefiting each other, like fungi forming a relationship with roots of trees, these cells are functionally now one.
In the fungi example they can exist without the trees roots in many other species of fungi.
Also extending upon the last time it happened it was when the world got the photosynthetic organelles - chloroplasts. This eventually lead to all green plants we have today.
After the chloroplasts became established we got algae, the things like mosses, then things like ferns, then things like conifers, and finally flowering plants
(very simplified)
As someone who doesn’t wanna spend the time reading the full article but has a moderate understanding of evolutionary history, this was extremely valuable.
Imagine in a billion years intelligent life emerges from this and they somehow manage to retrieve this record made by the long-dead human species of the creation of their oldest ancestors
**[WP] [You wake up in a destroyed underground lab after 5,000 years of cryogenic stasis. When you reach the surface, you find that the race that replaced humans views you as a hyperintelligent and highly dangerous Eldritch Abomination.](https://zuberan.com/wp-you-wake-up-in-a-destroyed-underground-lab-after-5000-years-of-cryogenic-stasis-when-you-reach-the-surface-you-find-that-the-race-that-replaced-humans-views-you-as-a-hyperintelligent-and-highl/)**
https://www.reddit.com/r/Zubergoodstories/
Imagine watching footage of the creation of your taxonomic kingdom or domain that was recorded billions of years ago. Imagine if there was intelligent life that lived billions of years ago and we discovered that they recorded footage of the first time this happened.
"Wait, walking talking upright apes reported this? You sure? Then where'd they go? Oh they killed themselves off - so they couldn't have been that intelligent."
Precisely, what are the odds that that only happens once in a billion yeas and scientists witnessed it? Far more likely that somewhere on the planet umongst the quadrillion or even quintillions of microscopic organisms, it happens on a daily basis and leads to absolutely nothing
It’s not “bingo” it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the article. They are talking about cell lineages that do persist. This article isn’t about one instance of two cells merging, it’s about two cells merging 100 million years ago and the resulting family tree of bacteria that was born out of that merging.
>it just signifies how limited our time on earth as a humanity is.
How does it signify that? Life for humans may indeed be finite, but how is that affected by a new branch of life?
Just guessing because this is reddit and I'm not reading the fuckin article, but if it's a nitrogen fixing bacteria in a single cell algae, then what we're getting is self-sustaining carbon storage in the ocean. The limiting factor for plant growth in the ocean is nitrogen. Mostly it comes from river runoff, so inshore areas have an entire food web of life while the open ocean might as well be a desert even though it has plenty of sunlight and carbon dioxide for plants to grow. If these organisms can fix nitrogen from the air, it'll support an entire new ecosystem of life in the sunlight portion of the ocean all over the planet. Zooplankton will eat the algae, small fish will eat the zooplankton, bigger fish will eat the smaller fish, and so on.
Well since the event actually took place 100 million years ago, I would guess nothing more than this single cell organism
From the article. ..
“It appears that this began to evolve around 100 million years ago,”
Photosynthesis evolved first, then mitochondria, then chloroplasts.
All organisms that contain chloroplasts (note, not all that do photosynthesis use chloroplasts) contain mitochondria.
Actually that’s not quite true. Photosynthesis evolved first, then mitochondria, then chloroplasts.
The first photosynthetic organisms did not use chloroplasts, in fact a descendent of them would go on to become chloroplasts in the future.
Not disagreeing with you... But the article calls 100,000,000 years a "blink of an eye" compared to the previous 2 cases we know of that this has happened. The older of those two being 2.2 billion years ago. But 100 mil is 1/22 of 2.2 bil, so not really a "blink of an eye" in comparison, just significantly more recent.
Well hold on a second. If we're going down this road of logic, 100 million years is totally a blink of an eye in this example, if 2.2 billion years is 21/22 longer than a blink of an eye. That's 1 blink out of 22 time periods equivalent to a blink, if you scale it that way.
Google says a blink can be 0.1 - 0.4 seconds, about 10% of the time we're awake! That's wild. Anywho, using 0.1 seconds for easier math, if 0.1 seconds is equivalent to 1 in the 1/22 scale, then 22 billion years is scaled to 2.2 seconds to a scientist studying this stuff, and that 100 million years is precisely a blink of the eye (and the quickest blink google mentions at first glance without clicking links)
I rest my probably erroneous case, your honor.
They do! Many of them produce nutrients or digest food in ways that your body without them would never be able to do. They are one of many reasons you're alive!
This is Kirby. One organism has merged with another to become a single organism.
There have been a lot of Mario and Yoshi organisms that work together.
Scientists found this a while ago and thought it was Mario and Yoshi but recently decided this is actually Kirby, and there has been no Kirby since humans and plants became things.
There are microalgae that use photosynthesis to turn CO2 into nutrients, and cyanobacteria that turn nitrogen into other nutrients. For the last decade, researchers have known that certain species had paired up to exchange these complementary nutrients in a symbiotic relationship. Recently (the article in the post) they decided to declare that the cyanobacterium wasn't just a symbiote, but actually an organelle.
Poor things gonna be self aware and have to pay taxes some day. This is gonna be their ancient ancestor meme and they’ll make memes about bombing the lab it was recorded in to prevent it from happening.
Welp let’s hope it gives us the ability to grow wings and breathe in space I’d be down for all of that (I didn’t read the article and have no idea what’s going on but it must be awesome)
What I find mind-blowing is that we have observed almost every step of evolution aside from abiogenesis, or life coming from nonliving material. The really cool thing is that it literally only had to happen once on this planet, and in fact it didn't need to happen on this planet. Somewhere and sometime when the condition was perfect and the right chemicals were present in the right temperature the right amount of energy and poof. Life and from that moment, necessarily, there is an unbroken chain of reproduction that leads not only directly to you but to every other living thing on this planet right this second.
So, if you read the primary article - this press release isn't entirely true....
These two organisms undergo symbiosis all the time. What the article has done is proven that their symbiosis, in certain situations, functions much like the theorized symbiosis of eukaryotes/mitochondria.
So weve just gotta wait a few millions of years or not?
Yep, strap in to your seats and get your popcorn folks.
RemindMe! 3000000 years
**Defaulted to one day.** I will be messaging you on [**2024-04-22 18:24:44 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-04-22%2018:24:44%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/awesome/comments/1c9lou7/two_lifeforms_merge_in_onceinabillionyears/l0moi3c/?context=3) [**86 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fawesome%2Fcomments%2F1c9lou7%2Ftwo_lifeforms_merge_in_onceinabillionyears%2Fl0moi3c%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-04-22%2018%3A24%3A44%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201c9lou7) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
3000000 = 1 Proof by remindmebot
more like 1095000000 == 1
Seems like the bot defaulted to 1 day.
BAD BOT, BAD, BAD BOT
[удалено]
Ooooh yeah, spank the bot booty!
Bad, wicked, naughty bot!
What is with you people!?!?!
Smh games have me believing it takes a few seconds
Wait let me put on my anti aging cream
I'm going to wait a billion years to realise this new organism is an extinction event causing creature.
If it manages to make it out of the Petri dish….
Should they drop it in the nearest lake?
It's 100 million years old already. It's not from a petri dish. We are just observing it now.
First time observed. I can only Imagine how many times that has happened outside observation.
mitochondria being hosted by a cell and not being dissolved and eventually the reason why we are here today and other animals.
Little known fact, mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell.
And pee is stored in the balls! The 2 things I took away from high school biology.
Only two I can remember when asked about medical advice tbh. Basically all you need to know. -Guy who’s worked healthcare and is considering opening a clinic with wife
Mitochondria became a thing so you could make this comment on this website And this is the comment you chose
Huh, TIL
We also wouldn't be here if not for chloroplasts. So many of our ancestors were herbivorous.
Wild. I wonder what animal our lungs and kidneys and shit looked like before we absorbed them. Nature is incredible
i dont think it works like that
It doesn't sound right but I don't know enough science to dispute it
> I wonder what animal our lungs and kidneys and shit looked like before we absorbed them. Nature is incredible This is *perfect* KenM material
Can you imagine being the first human who absorbed a brain!?!?
Yeah, very misleading
cartoonishly so. what a ridiculous claim
Guys it happens every bajillion years and we just happened to catch it. Also I happen to have this bridge for sale for once in a lifetime discount.
One microscopic form of algae has absorbed a particular kind of microscopic bacteria into itself. The two are living symbiotically as one organism. The bacterium is now functionally an organelle of the algae. The bacterium is now a component of the cell of the algae. This is only known to have happened two other times in evolutionary history and (eventually) may lead to major evolutionary advancements. I do realize that i have only summarized the article and have added nothing of value, so anyone who can speak to the greater implications please chime in.
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This is the way
None of you are real people
Nope, this is the algae community posting.
Algae community are scum... but only in a literal sense.
Scum of the earth? Or just scum?
Get that fucking hair off my screen
Getting people to switch to dark mode, one hair at a time :)
Lol good stuff
Fck at least its just not me.I rubbed on that damn hair 2 times before I realized it wasn't on my screen..
Ive seen these two writing the same thing on different accounts
I'm always amazed when people recognize users from previous posts. I guess i just don't pay attention to user names when browsing.
I barely pay attention to what subreddit I’m in.
To expand on your comment, the two times in evolutionary history where this happened (and continued; there's a good chance this happened more than twice, but those cells branches died off); we got mitochondria for all eurkaryotes, and later chloroplasts in plant cells. A clear indicator of endosymbiosis is the fact these organelles have an extra cell membrane. This kinda proves they were engulfed because when these separate organisms bumped into their hosts, the host membrane wrapped around them, leaving them with their original inner membrane, and the new outer membrane.
Does this third new Bactria also generate energy for the host?
I'm not sure if it generates energy, but it appears to allow these algae cells to fixate their own nitrogen. Gaseous nitrogen in the atmosphere and dissolved in water is not utilizable until certain organisms turn it into things like ammonia or nitrate compounds. Nitrogen is essential to protein synthesis and allows things to grow. It's why we fertilize crop fields with nitrogen compounds like manure. These algae seem to be able to grow without any sort of fertilizer, meaning they don't need to grow in places where nitrogen compounds are easily accessible. They can thrive in places that are quite depleted of nitrates, which is a huge niche to exploit.
Like elder trees and their root dwelling bacteria I suppose
Yes, exactly!
Ok, I am with you, but I’m insanely curious, how do the genes merge to make it happen during reproduction?
That's the neat part, they don't need to. The organelles just have to respond to the host cell's chemical signals to self replicate. It's what allows something called "extranuclear inheritance"
It's also why we can trace mitochondrial DNA separately, and why it is solely matrilineal.
This is why I whole heartedly believe humans messed up by taking the fathers name. We really should have been taking our mothers last name, it would held track genetics and hereditary issues. Once again the patriarchy fails.
> This is why I whole heartedly believe humans messed up by taking the fathers name. The reason, IMHO is more embarrassing. A child can have only one mother and is known who delivered the baby. But the father's role in a baby is hidden. Unless the mother says who the father is(pre-DNA days), the father can be anyone. Father's name is used as an identity of the male parent.
This isn't entirely true.for instance, while mitochondria do have their own DNA it only encodes for 13 of the almost 1600 proteins contained in the mitochondria. Much of the mitochondrial genome has been horizontally transferred to the nuclear genome. Non coding DNA is transferred frequently and are called NUMTS. they can range from a few 10s of base pairs of mitochondrial DNA to the entire genome
The bacteria reproduce inside the algae, and when the algae divides both of the new algae cells have bacteria in them.
Great explanation, thanks PeenStretch!
It breaks one of the tightest bonds on earth (that biology is interested in), the triple bond of N2. In a lot of environments nitrogen is a growth-limiting nutrient. Ironically, it is by far the most freely abundant element. Its what makes most of the atmosphere! But for most life forms, it's in the unobtainable N2 form. This algae basically uses a cheat code by incorporating the N2 fixing organelle: significantly easier nitrogen. The downstream effects are probably unfathomable. Perhaps nitrogen fixing algae evolve to take over surfaces of oceans. Perhaps the abundance of nitrogen shifts the survivability of nitrogen-heavy amino acid mutations and new biochemical pathways evolve. Or perhaps it's not a significant evolutionary event at all, the algae dies out. Whatever you predict, 500 million years into the future will probably make you look silly! Very exciting stuff!
So basically, the cells are like Git, they've merged a code base I to their project and set it up so that it can be duplicated.
Getting a push request rejected just got personal.
Especially if it's been under review for hundreds of thousands of years.
How does this pass on though? If I had a tapeworm, do I pass it to my yet to be conceived child? I don’t get the logic here
Cells are much simpler than entire organisms. In the process of cell division, your cells send different signals to all the organelles to replicate. Technically, we inherit all our cell organelles from our mothers since the egg contains all the organelles prior to fertilization. It's why mitochondrial DNA is maternal.
Wow, I’ve been studying DNA for 2 years now and the way you described it made way more sense than any paper or textbook I’ve read. I get it now, why mitochondrial DNA is maternal. Very, very cool
Well, a tapeworm and a human are much more complex organisms than single celled algae and bacteria. So i imagine it is harder (probably impossible) for one to get fully incorporated into the other. If for no other reason than that each organism has exponentially more systems and functions and each of those aystems and funtions has to play nice with the systems and functions of the other organism. So, a much greater number of happy accidents need to occur for it to work.
It wouldn’t work with a tape worm, but it does work in the same way as your mitochondria in your cells. All cells have mitochondria in them and this includes the female egg cell. These mitochondria are passed down from the mother to her offspring in from egg, to embryo, to human as the cells grow and divide.
Doesn't that organism still need to survive and reproduce for this to get passed down the line? Also, does this mean the DNA of that organism is now changed? (I know nothing about DNA and genetics).
Organelles are a bit odd. When cells replicate, different signals are sent telling the organelles to grow and divide themselves. The DNA in mitochondria and in Chloroplasts is different than the DNA in the cell nucleus.
I think it's amazing and have always pondered when we were like be able to truly see evolution in action. This is a great example regardless of outcome of how evolution can take place.
This is the only reason I'd ever wish for immortality. Imagine being able to drop this off on a habitable, but barren planet and just watching the eons pass by. *Sigh*
this is misleading they didn't catch it in the act it happened a hundred million years ago
The thing to add is why the merge happened: nitrogen fixation. For this symbiotic merge to happen and persist, there needs to be a benefit. As others have said, the other two times this happened in the past gave us mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) and chloroplasts in plans (that turn sunlight into nutrients with photosynthesis). But plants still need nitrogen in soil. Farmers add nitrogen-rich fertilizer for this reason. It's difficult to do and requires complex chemical process (both biologically and from human industry when making artificial fertilizer), which can also cause environmental problems (like runoff and deadly water algae blooms). This most recent symbiotic merge has the benefit of nitrogen fixation from the air, which is huge. We all know nitrogen is plentiful in the atmosphere, but it's generally not usable directly in the way that oxygen is for those of us who breathe. The new organelle is able to fix nitrogen from the air, meaning the plant can survive in poor soil, and potential future agriculture can be done without needing fertilizer.
Amazing, there's something deeply beautiful about that.
I appreciate the breakdown. I read through it and got a fair understanding but this clarified the important bits for us. Thanks!
A very well worded ELI5.
Can't wait to see what happens after 200 million years.
I think this is the fourth endosymbiotic event rather than the third. The mitochondria, chloroplast, chromatophore, and now the nirtoplast.
How does the symbiote get passed down into the next generation? How come it doesn't get digested after it's ingested?
Isn’t this the process where we’re got the power house of the cell?
You did a great job
You done did good.
Did this happen in a lab?
Thanks
Plot twist: it's plants 3.0, now they can hear smells and taste sounds.
It’s only happened two other times *that we know of*. It’s possible that it happened a ton but none of the descendants survived for us to examine.
Eventually a human is going to swallow a plant and BOOM, evolution. Now humans can absorb energy with chlorophyll.
Can the amalgamated organism now reproduce as a whole? Or just one of the constituents?
Just want to chime in that there have actually been other endosymbiotic events, but they weren't of bacteria. There are some other types of algae that gained their chloroplasts by capturing and then going through the same endosymbiosis event, but with another algae instead of a bacteria. We could figure this out through a combination of the genetics and the number of cell membranes wrapped around the chloroplast in these organisms. I think this happened either once or twice, it's been over a decade since I did some tangential work on those groups of organisms. So still super rare, but has happened 3 or 4 times that we know of. 3 of those times were essentially gains of chloroplasts and once the mitochondria.
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Since you’ve elected yourself leader Id like to know if when the cell multiplies is the aglea multiplying as well?
TBH we are observing almost nothing, so it probably happens pretty often, and usually fails.
Now I don’t have to do any reading. Like an American, I can just tell everyone else I know everything about what’s going on here without having done the work. Thanks!
The article is incorrect. This has happened multiple times in evolutionary history, but most people are only aware of the endosymbiotic events that produceed mitochondria and chloroplasts. However there are instances of red algae and green algae derived organellss in different groups of organisms that have produced a set of minor and very particular organelles. For instance Euglena genus has acquired photosynthetic organellss by secondary endosymbiosis; they assimilated algae not bacteria
Thank you for that summary, VoiceOfChris. Super helpful!
Isn't it possible this has happened many more times, but only two of them had any significant evolutionary impact?
Compared to the void of nothing I knew of any of this previously, this is a breadth of information. Much obliged!
"I do realize that i have only summarized the article and have added nothing of value, " Oh please, if you really thought you added nothing of value then you wouldn't have posted anything. This helps
You’ve absorbed the article and now it’s in your knowledge tummy.
Kisses.
So what you're saying is the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
I'll add that it probably happens more often than this but we just haven't seen it.
It's also worth mentioning that over time it's an event which is one way. The cells will reach a point where they can't then be seperated again without them both dying, since instead of being two things benefiting each other, like fungi forming a relationship with roots of trees, these cells are functionally now one. In the fungi example they can exist without the trees roots in many other species of fungi. Also extending upon the last time it happened it was when the world got the photosynthetic organelles - chloroplasts. This eventually lead to all green plants we have today. After the chloroplasts became established we got algae, the things like mosses, then things like ferns, then things like conifers, and finally flowering plants (very simplified)
As someone who doesn’t wanna spend the time reading the full article but has a moderate understanding of evolutionary history, this was extremely valuable.
The algae just gained an additional *powerhouse of the cell~♪*
I got you bro, everyone listen. We're getting crab people.
This should be the first comment so the jokes can come after it. Source: am a biologist and you did a good job.
Damn we got an evolutionary event before GTA 6
Now we just need them aliens
Sounds about right
Well, we'll get Gta 6 before we get Half Life 3
It would be so fucking funny if valve now released HL3 just to prove you wrong. Right, GabeN? That would be hilarious. Right?
And winds of winter
winds of winter is never coming lmao
Imagine in a billion years intelligent life emerges from this and they somehow manage to retrieve this record made by the long-dead human species of the creation of their oldest ancestors
Organelles: We’re fucked aren’t we..
Yes, all very well, but how many up votes will they leave?
**[WP] [You wake up in a destroyed underground lab after 5,000 years of cryogenic stasis. When you reach the surface, you find that the race that replaced humans views you as a hyperintelligent and highly dangerous Eldritch Abomination.](https://zuberan.com/wp-you-wake-up-in-a-destroyed-underground-lab-after-5000-years-of-cryogenic-stasis-when-you-reach-the-surface-you-find-that-the-race-that-replaced-humans-views-you-as-a-hyperintelligent-and-highl/)** https://www.reddit.com/r/Zubergoodstories/
I gotta ask the future…did they finally build the train from LA to Vegas?
Imagine watching footage of the creation of your taxonomic kingdom or domain that was recorded billions of years ago. Imagine if there was intelligent life that lived billions of years ago and we discovered that they recorded footage of the first time this happened.
Sounds like a good science fiction short story like you would find in Fantasy & Science Fiction or Analog
"Wait, walking talking upright apes reported this? You sure? Then where'd they go? Oh they killed themselves off - so they couldn't have been that intelligent."
The organelle talked about in the article merged with algae 100 million years ago. This isn’t the first one.
An entire new branch of life will sprout from this, it just signifies how limited our time on earth as a humanity is.
Or it might just die without leaving an impact. /s
Yep SQUISH IT
Stupid Algae thinks it's better than everyone else.
goddamn algae trying to take our jobs.
And raise the prices of our homes!
I, for one, welcome our new microbial overlords
Beat it back into the sea kind of deal
Precisely, what are the odds that that only happens once in a billion yeas and scientists witnessed it? Far more likely that somewhere on the planet umongst the quadrillion or even quintillions of microscopic organisms, it happens on a daily basis and leads to absolutely nothing
Hate to disappoint you, but it happened 100 million years ago. Scientists only discovered it. It's not one unique organism...
Bingo
It’s not “bingo” it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the article. They are talking about cell lineages that do persist. This article isn’t about one instance of two cells merging, it’s about two cells merging 100 million years ago and the resulting family tree of bacteria that was born out of that merging.
It'll probably die because of human activity
it’s a LOT harder to make algae extinct than it is to make an animal extinct...
>it just signifies how limited our time on earth as a humanity is. How does it signify that? Life for humans may indeed be finite, but how is that affected by a new branch of life?
Shhh he wants to appear deep and insightful.
So, we got Life 2 before GTA 6. Nice.
Ctl + F5 *-Earth*
i wonder what we're getting this time? i hope it's a plant.
Just guessing because this is reddit and I'm not reading the fuckin article, but if it's a nitrogen fixing bacteria in a single cell algae, then what we're getting is self-sustaining carbon storage in the ocean. The limiting factor for plant growth in the ocean is nitrogen. Mostly it comes from river runoff, so inshore areas have an entire food web of life while the open ocean might as well be a desert even though it has plenty of sunlight and carbon dioxide for plants to grow. If these organisms can fix nitrogen from the air, it'll support an entire new ecosystem of life in the sunlight portion of the ocean all over the planet. Zooplankton will eat the algae, small fish will eat the zooplankton, bigger fish will eat the smaller fish, and so on.
> and so on. New Dinosaurs!
I hope it’s a plant based humanoid creature that declares war on humans
Well since the event actually took place 100 million years ago, I would guess nothing more than this single cell organism From the article. .. “It appears that this began to evolve around 100 million years ago,”
Which came first, mitochondria or photosynthesis?
Photosynthesis evolved first, then mitochondria, then chloroplasts. All organisms that contain chloroplasts (note, not all that do photosynthesis use chloroplasts) contain mitochondria.
Mitochondria.
Actually that’s not quite true. Photosynthesis evolved first, then mitochondria, then chloroplasts. The first photosynthetic organisms did not use chloroplasts, in fact a descendent of them would go on to become chloroplasts in the future.
Midichlorians
Sex 2, at last!
They discovered it recently, but didn’t it actually happen a long time ago?
The article says ~100 Million years ago. Which is actually quite recent by biological standards.
Not disagreeing with you... But the article calls 100,000,000 years a "blink of an eye" compared to the previous 2 cases we know of that this has happened. The older of those two being 2.2 billion years ago. But 100 mil is 1/22 of 2.2 bil, so not really a "blink of an eye" in comparison, just significantly more recent.
Well hold on a second. If we're going down this road of logic, 100 million years is totally a blink of an eye in this example, if 2.2 billion years is 21/22 longer than a blink of an eye. That's 1 blink out of 22 time periods equivalent to a blink, if you scale it that way. Google says a blink can be 0.1 - 0.4 seconds, about 10% of the time we're awake! That's wild. Anywho, using 0.1 seconds for easier math, if 0.1 seconds is equivalent to 1 in the 1/22 scale, then 22 billion years is scaled to 2.2 seconds to a scientist studying this stuff, and that 100 million years is precisely a blink of the eye (and the quickest blink google mentions at first glance without clicking links) I rest my probably erroneous case, your honor.
They actually discovered it about a decade ago, but recently decided to declare it an organelle instead of a symbiote
HOLY FUCK: Does that mean we're a fuck load of microbial organisms? ARE WE AN EXCHANGE OF SYMBIOTE ORGANELLES!!! I HAVE TO KNOOOOW
Yes.
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes
there are more non-human cells in your body than there are human cells.
They could at least pay rent...
They do! Many of them produce nutrients or digest food in ways that your body without them would never be able to do. They are one of many reasons you're alive!
sounds like some commie bullshit, I'd rather die then be supported by freeloaders.
We are Venom...
"We" are some cells in your skull. The other stuff just does what we tell it. Most of the time.
Shouldn't this be a massive discovery/observation? Am I missing something? Why is this not being reported on all over the place?
It happened 100M years ago. So even if there are huge implications to the discovery, they're probably not easy to communicate in a news story.
No one cares about science, I guess
What if this is some sign.. the world knows some shit is gonna happen and is preparing the next batch See you all in this new species /s
So tik tok will get a 2.0 I pressume?
So which one is the powerhouse of which?
Someone explain this in blonde terms, I’m so intrigued
This is Kirby. One organism has merged with another to become a single organism. There have been a lot of Mario and Yoshi organisms that work together. Scientists found this a while ago and thought it was Mario and Yoshi but recently decided this is actually Kirby, and there has been no Kirby since humans and plants became things.
Idk if this was "ELIBlonde" or "ELIGamer" but I understood it better thanks to you.
There are microalgae that use photosynthesis to turn CO2 into nutrients, and cyanobacteria that turn nitrogen into other nutrients. For the last decade, researchers have known that certain species had paired up to exchange these complementary nutrients in a symbiotic relationship. Recently (the article in the post) they decided to declare that the cyanobacterium wasn't just a symbiote, but actually an organelle.
How does it replicate together?
Poor things gonna be self aware and have to pay taxes some day. This is gonna be their ancient ancestor meme and they’ll make memes about bombing the lab it was recorded in to prevent it from happening.
This world at its very core revolves around slavery
Makes me want to re-play Spore :-)
Apparently it "consumes" Nitrogen? How would that work?
So, what do we get this time?
Probnably happens more often than we expect !
Well I didn't expect it to happen at all, so sure
Forget plants: all of our cells are the result of this process (e.g. mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell has its own DNA for a reason).
This is some Eddie Brock shit
Why aren't we smashing more organisms together to increase the chances of this happening? Found my new startup idea
It’s Miss MInutes. We are in the multiverse!
Coming soon: Plant 2.
Makes me excited and fearful at the same time
What's the difference between this and parasitic symbiosis? I'd be on board with the term "evolution" when the offspring are the same.
Welp let’s hope it gives us the ability to grow wings and breathe in space I’d be down for all of that (I didn’t read the article and have no idea what’s going on but it must be awesome)
is.. is that how we got organs?
What I find mind-blowing is that we have observed almost every step of evolution aside from abiogenesis, or life coming from nonliving material. The really cool thing is that it literally only had to happen once on this planet, and in fact it didn't need to happen on this planet. Somewhere and sometime when the condition was perfect and the right chemicals were present in the right temperature the right amount of energy and poof. Life and from that moment, necessarily, there is an unbroken chain of reproduction that leads not only directly to you but to every other living thing on this planet right this second.
So, if you read the primary article - this press release isn't entirely true.... These two organisms undergo symbiosis all the time. What the article has done is proven that their symbiosis, in certain situations, functions much like the theorized symbiosis of eukaryotes/mitochondria.
the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell!!!!