Saturday November 21, 2009 11:05 AM AEST

Microscopic symbiotes change from predator to plant

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Microscopic symbiotes change from predator to plant

Miniature algae give these predators a desire for something greener.

The world of tiny single-celled organisms is more complex than the average punter would guess, often filled with interactions that make the rest of us wonder how they ever came to be.

One more recent finding was the fascinating (yet still weird) discovery of a small organism called Hatena; in its usual form it has a complex mouth to devour organic objects smaller than itself.

However once it ingests a specific type of organic material, in this case a single-celled algae called Nephroselmis, a strange behaviour and change is introduced to the Hatena.

Rather than continuing on its merry way to chomp on more food, the Hatena has its mouth replaced by an incredibly primitive light-sensing organ.

Once this happens the Hatena moves towards any light sources, using photosynthesis for energy opposed to a chemical breakdown of food, and sustaining the algae within it's body.

Not only does the teensy newly-converted plant analogue feed in a different way, its offspring are different too:

Hatena reproduces by binary fission. So once it splits itself, what happens to the symbiotic alga? Well, one daughter cell gets the alga, and the other gets ot be a predator.. at least until it eats another alga.

Byte Size Biology has a lot more on these crazy little critters - ain't science grand?

 

 
 
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5 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
alex8337
Jul 6, 2009 11:37 AM
spelling. you typed ot instead of to in the quote at the end.
TheFrunj
Jul 6, 2009 11:57 AM
If you read the article, you'd notice that it was in fact their error :)

-JR
Rage09
Jul 6, 2009 2:07 PM
Spore stage one all over again :P
atramentous
Jul 6, 2009 2:46 PM
its a bit of enders game and sequels happening all around us :O
p_francis_bennett
Jul 9, 2009 1:07 PM
I thought it sounded like spore.
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Issue: 107 | December, 2009

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