Original version of This story Appeared in Quanta magazine。
Most single -cell microorganisms are in a complicated relationship, rather than working alone. In the sea, soil, and intestines, they may fight and eat each other, exchange DNA, compete for nutrients, and eat each other’s by -product. In some cases, they may be even closer. Some cells can slip into another cell and become comfortable. If the conditions are appropriate, it can be maintained, welcomed, and can lead to many generations or billions of years. This phenomenon, in which a cell lives in another cell, has been called internal symbiosis and has promoted the evolution of complex life.
There are examples of internal symbiosis everywhere. Mitochondria, which is an energy factory in cells, Bacteria that used to live freely。 The photosynthetic plants have sugars spun with the sunshine into chloroplasts, but chloroplasts were originally independent creatures. Many insects take essential nutrients From bacteria that live in the body。 And last year, the researchers Discover “Nitroplast” An internal symbiosis that helps some algae processing nitrogen.
Many of the lives depend on internal symbiosis, but scientists have struggled to understand how it will happen. How do you avoid digestion of internal shifted cells? How do you learn to breed within the host? Why is a partnership formed?
For the first time, the researchers observed the choreography at the beginning of this fine dance. Guidance of internal symbiosis in the laboratory。 After injecting bacteria into fungi (this process requires creative problems (and bicycle pumps)), researchers succeeded in cooperating without killing bacteria and hosts. Their observations can be glimpsed on the conditions that enable the same thing in wild microorganisms.
The cells adapted mutually earlier than expected. “For me, this means that living things want to live together, which means that coexistence is standard,” said. Vasilis KokkorisA fungus studying symbiotic cell biology at VU University in Amsterdam, but not involved in this new study. “It’s a very big news for me and for this world.”
The initial attempt was a failure, but it became clear that most of the romance in the cells had failed. However, by understanding how, when and when it accepts internal symbiotic creatures, researchers can be more important to understand the important moment of evolution and operate using powerful internal symbiotic organisms. There is a possibility that synthetic cells can be developed.
Cell wall breakthrough
Julia WolholtDr., a microbiologist at the Swiss Federal University of Technology in Switzerland, has long been confused about internal coexistence. Researchers in this field theory that bacteria invade the host cells that the relationship between infection and harmony will be overwhelming. Too fast bacteria can cause the host resources to depletate, cause immune reactions, and have the death of both guests, hosts, or death. If the proliferation is too slow, it will not be established in the cells. They believed that the bacteria could only reach the gordyx breeding rate. Next, in order to become a true internal symbiotic, you must invade the host’s reproductive cycle and transfer to the next generation. Finally, the host’s genome needs to be mutated to adapt to bacteria, so that two can evolve as one unit.
“They become addicted to each other,” says Voholt.
