It is possibly part of a separate fourth domain of life, Parakarya.
I used to research weird algae that don’t fit in so well phylogenetically speaking, and I’m kinda annoyed by the philosophy of making everything its own group, so I read the above and thought, “yeah right”
Now that I’ve read the article… yeah this thing is REALLY, REALLY weird. Why does it only have 1 nuclear membrane!? What the fuck are filamentous chromosomes!? WHERE IS ITS CYTOSKELETON!? HOW DOES IT DO ANYTHING WITHOUT A CYTOSKELETON!?
I really hope they find a second specimen to confirm it’s not an artifact. Really cool discovery.
Time to catch some scale worms on hydrotermal vents!
known only from a single specimen, described in 2012.
Could they have just fabricated it? Has there been any observations of the specimen since?
possibly, though if they did it was likely accidental
I looked at some of the TEM photos and it certainly looks to me like what they’re describing is all there (or not there). The prep and imaging looks high quality also, so I personally doubt it’s a prep or imaging artifact. But I’m far from an expert, just know a bit of cell TEM from the one project I did a few years ago
Wow.
Thanks.
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