Hatena arenicola | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
(unranked): | Hacrobia |
(unranked): | Katablepharida |
Genus: | Hatena |
Species: | Hatena arenicola |
Hatena arenicola is a species of single-celled eukaryotes described in 2006.[1] The species is a flagellate, and can resemble a plant at one stage of its life, in which it carries a photosynthesizing alga inside itself,[2] or an animal, acting as predator in another stage of its life. Researchers believe that this organism is in the process of endosymbiosis, in which one organism is incorporated into another, resulting in a completely new life form. Endosymbiosis is the process by which plants diverged from the trunk of the tree of life.
The algal endosymbiont is a green alga from the genus Nephroselmis.[1] Unlike a fully integrated organelle, the Nephroselmis alga does not divide along with the host cell. When the host cell divides, one of the daughter cells receives the Nephroselmis cell and the other daughter returns to a heterotrophic lifestyle.[3] The latter behaves like a predator until it ingests a green alga. The alga then loses its flagella and cytoskeleton, while the Hatena, now a host, switches to photosynthetic nutrition, gains the ability to move towards light and loses its feeding apparatus.
The name is from a Japanese interjection meaning roughly "enigma",[2] or "how odd".
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