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- TL;DR Summary
- Very exciting finding: Japanese Scientists have cultured cells that are: related to Lokiarchaeota (by genome sequence similarity), have long cellular processes, associate with a bacterium (as a proto-mitochondrion might have.
The origin of advanced eukaryotic cells (that make up all higher organisms (protists, plants, fungi, animals)) have been hypothesized to involve an archaeal cell internalizing a formerly free living alphaproteobacterium. PF threads on this are here and here.
Japanese researchers have isolated archaeal cells, by using culture methods, that are related to Loki--- and have some properties often thought to be found in the pre-eukaryotic host cell. These features include: independently controllable membrane and cytoplasmic regions (protrusions and blebs vs. cell body), mutually beneficial nutrient exchanges with a bacterium.
Science news article here.
Japanese researchers, after working for 12 years, have isolated these difficult to find microbes using a series of cleaver culturing methods. They used anaerobic conditions, methane food source, antibiotics to inhibit bacteria (vs. archaea) and extremely long culture times (since the cells divided about once every two weeks). After setting up several different culture test conditions, they left the cells to grow for about a year and found a single culture with growing cells.
A preprint is available here. In it, the authors, informed by their results, hypothesize how mitochondrial endosymbosis might have occurred:
I'll have to read more of this before I can make any further comments.
Japanese researchers have isolated archaeal cells, by using culture methods, that are related to Loki--- and have some properties often thought to be found in the pre-eukaryotic host cell. These features include: independently controllable membrane and cytoplasmic regions (protrusions and blebs vs. cell body), mutually beneficial nutrient exchanges with a bacterium.
Science news article here.
Japanese researchers, after working for 12 years, have isolated these difficult to find microbes using a series of cleaver culturing methods. They used anaerobic conditions, methane food source, antibiotics to inhibit bacteria (vs. archaea) and extremely long culture times (since the cells divided about once every two weeks). After setting up several different culture test conditions, they left the cells to grow for about a year and found a single culture with growing cells.
A preprint is available here. In it, the authors, informed by their results, hypothesize how mitochondrial endosymbosis might have occurred:
I'll have to read more of this before I can make any further comments.