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Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis

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  • Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis
• Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis

• Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis

  Michael > April 25th, 2024, 03:39 AM

  The article title is a bit misleading: "Two lifeforms merge in once-in-a-billion-years evolutionary event"
  
  Yes, well, they've been "doing the merge" for about 100 million years (so the process began when there were still dinosaurs roaming the Earth and while mammals were still all just little scurrying critters).
  
  And, also, the "once-in-a-billion-years" is somewhat figurative (too short a timespan).
  
  There are plenty of interesting, full-color diagrams in the article. I will not reproduce them here but this is how the article begins.
  
  

  
  

  [ Indent ]

  
  Last time this happened, Earth got plants.
  
  Scientists have caught a once-in-a-billion-years evolutionary event in progress, as two lifeforms have merged into one organism that boasts abilities its peers would envy. Last time this happened, Earth got plants.
  
  The phenomenon is called primary endosymbiosis, and it occurs when one microbial organism engulfs another, and starts using it like an internal organ. In exchange, the host cell provides nutrients, energy, protection and other benefits to the symbiote, until eventually it can no longer survive on its own and essentially ends up becoming an organ for the host – or what’s known as an organelle in microbial cells.
  
  Imagine if kidneys were actually little animals running around, and humans had to manually filter their blood through a dialysis machine. Then one day some guy somehow gets one of these kidney critters stuck... Internally (who are we to judge how?) – and realizes he no longer needs his dialysis machine. Neither do his kids, until eventually we're all born with these helpful little fellas inside us. That’s kind of what’s happening here.
  

  
  

  
  Read the full article here:
  
  https://newatlas.com/biology/life-merger...organelle/

• RE: Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis

  RobRoy > April 25th, 2024, 12:19 PM

  I'd understood this might be the case with eyes. I remember my wife, a biochemist, saying something along these lines. I've never actually dug into it, though.

• RE: Scientists have documented a 'new' type of symbiosis

  Michael > April 25th, 2024, 04:45 PM

  What surprises me about that article is that it says plants emerged from what I guess became the animal line of evolution. I always thought it went the other way, but I guess I was wrong.
  
  And it doesn't say how we're supposedly related to fungi, which I thought we were.
  
  This isn't a subject that has fascinated me enough to really study it but I do like to browse these kinds of articles when they come along.
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