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Parasite Is Really a Micro-Jellyfish

28 points by kungfudoi 11y ago

guard-of-terra 11y ago
Why do they wonder so much after that tasmanian devil's cancer? There you have a contagious disease that's not bacteria or virus but canine. There's also a culture of some woman's cells that is used for I don't remember what. Makes it a new genus of Homo! Or not. I think we can conclude that genetic similarity is not everything and such derivates should be considered separatrely.
- Retric 11y ago
  Hela cells are don't actually closely match human cells any more. Genetically chimps are much closer to humans than that cell line. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/famous-hela-human-cell-line-gets-its-dna-sequenced/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/famous-hela-human-... "Steinmetz’s team confirmed that HeLa cells contain one extra version of most chromosomes, with up to five copies of some. Many genes were duplicated even more extensively, with four, five or six copies sometimes present, instead of the usual two. Furthermore, large segments of chromosome 11 and several other chromosomes were reshuffled like a deck of cards, drastically altering the arrangement of the genes"
mcguire 11y ago
"Myxozoans still have a complex structure that looks like the stinging cells of jellyfish, called a nematocyst, that Cartwright calls 'little firing weapons.'" So, what do they use the nematocysts for?
pvaldes 11y ago
This is a, not new but very interesting, theory that appeared first time in 'Nature' in the late 90's if I remember correctly. The theory received more support later. In retrospective, is easy to make the conection when you see it the first time, but nobody knew it before. This was a really shocking idea for many or us. Myxozoans are mysterious aquatic organisms causing serious mortality in fishes and millionary economic damages sometimes. They have a very complex life cycle with multinucleated plasmodia, sporoblast phases and two different types of spores, one for attacking worms and other for fishes. Only one type of spores have the polar capsules, and they are exacty like nematocysts. At microscope you can see the coiled filaments inside, easily fired with urea in lab. They are used in host atachment before to release a motile ameboid form. A similar history happened also with the similar Microspora, a classic phylum of protozoans parasites of animals, currently in fungi.

28 points by kungfudoi 11y ago

Why do they wonder so much after that tasmanian devil's cancer? There you have a contagious disease that's not bacteria or virus but canine. There's also a culture of some woman's cells that is used for I don't remember what. Makes it a new genus of Homo! Or not. I think we can conclude that genetic similarity is not everything and such derivates should be considered separatrely.

Retric 11y ago
Hela cells are don't actually closely match human cells any more. Genetically chimps are much closer to humans than that cell line. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/famous-hela-human-cell-line-gets-its-dna-sequenced/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/famous-hela-human-... "Steinmetz’s team confirmed that HeLa cells contain one extra version of most chromosomes, with up to five copies of some. Many genes were duplicated even more extensively, with four, five or six copies sometimes present, instead of the usual two. Furthermore, large segments of chromosome 11 and several other chromosomes were reshuffled like a deck of cards, drastically altering the arrangement of the genes"

mcguire 11y ago

"Myxozoans still have a complex structure that looks like the stinging cells of jellyfish, called a nematocyst, that Cartwright calls 'little firing weapons.'" So, what do they use the nematocysts for?

pvaldes 11y ago

This is a, not new but very interesting, theory that appeared first time in 'Nature' in the late 90's if I remember correctly. The theory received more support later. In retrospective, is easy to make the conection when you see it the first time, but nobody knew it before. This was a really shocking idea for many or us. Myxozoans are mysterious aquatic organisms causing serious mortality in fishes and millionary economic damages sometimes. They have a very complex life cycle with multinucleated plasmodia, sporoblast phases and two different types of spores, one for attacking worms and other for fishes. Only one type of spores have the polar capsules, and they are exacty like nematocysts. At microscope you can see the coiled filaments inside, easily fired with urea in lab. They are used in host atachment before to release a motile ameboid form. A similar history happened also with the similar Microspora, a classic phylum of protozoans parasites of animals, currently in fungi.