Traditional biology teachings suggest that only bacteria have the ability to extract nitrogen from the atmosphere and transform it into a usable form for living organisms. However, a recent breakthrough challenges this notion.
According to Tyler Coale, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Cruz, the emergence of organelles is a rare occurrence with significant implications. The mitochondria, responsible for the complexity of life beyond bacterial cells, and the chloroplast, essential for plant life, are examples of such events. Now, a new discovery introduces the concept of a nitrogen-fixing organelle known as a nitroplast.
The journey to uncover this groundbreaking organelle was a combination of serendipity and years of dedicated research. Jonathan Zehr, a distinguished professor at UC Santa Cruz, stumbled upon a mysterious DNA sequence from a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium in Pacific Ocean seawater back in 1998. Concurrently, Kyoko Hagino, a paleontologist at Kochi University, was diligently cultivating a marine alga that turned out to be the host organism for the cyanobacterium. After over a decade of effort, Hagino successfully cultured the alga, allowing researchers to delve into the study of this unique symbiotic relationship.
2024-04-12 08:00:02
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