Hungry Pac-Man alga hints at origin of plants

• Autores: Michael Marshall
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2920, 2013, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A tiny alga with a mouth could help explain how plants became green. Now Shinichiro Maruyama of the National institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Japan, and colleagues studied Cymbomonas, a single-celled alga which belongs to one of the oldest algal groups. Cymbomonas ordinarily survives by photosynthesizing, but when they grew it under low light levels it took to eating bacteria. However, rather than extending a blobby "arm" to engulf its prey like other single-celled organisms, Cymbomonas sucked the bacteria up into a feeding tube. The tube led to a bubble-like chamber called a vacuole, a sort of microscopic stomach where the bacteria were digested