Hatena (Hatena arenicola) is a one celled organism recently discovered in Japan. The Hatena is a flagellate, and can resemble a plant at one stage of its life, in which it carries a photosynthesizing alga, Nephroselmis inside itself,[1] or an animal, acting as predator in another stage of its life. Researchers believe that this organism is in the process of endosymbiosis, in which one organism is incorporated into another, resulting in a completely new life form. Endosymbiosis is the process by which plants and animals originally diverged from the trunk of the tree of life.
The algal endosymbiont is a green alga from the genus Nephroselmis.[2] Unlike a fully integrated organelle, the Nephroselmis alga does not divide along with the host cell. When the host cell divides, one of the daughter cells receives the Nephroselmis cell and the other daughter returns to a heterotrophic lifestyle.[3]
The name is from a Japanese interjection meaning roughly "enigma"[4], or "how odd".
See also
References
- ^ "Marine Microorganism Plays Both Host and Killer: Scientific American". http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=marine-microorganism-play. Retrieved on 2009-07-06.
- ^ Okamoto, N; Inouye, I (Oct 2006). "Hatena arenicola gen. et sp. nov., a katablepharid undergoing probable plastid acquisition". Protist 157 (4): 401–19. doi:10.1016/j.protis.2006.05.011. PMID 16891155.
- ^ Mittelmeier, Tm; Berthold, P; Danon, A; Lamb, Mr; Levitan, A; Rice, Me; Dieckmann, Cl (Dec 2008). "C2 domain protein MIN1 promotes eyespot organization in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii." (Free full text). Eukaryotic cell 7 (12): 2100–12. doi:10.1128/EC.00118-08. ISSN 1535-9778. PMID 18849467. PMC: 2593190. http://ec.asm.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=18849467.
- ^ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=marine-microorganism-play
External links
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