3 ms·
If they find cells lacking some organelle, it will be hard to say whether it was never acquired, or was later abandoned. One clue would be leftover genes from
by ncmncm 4y ago
If they find cells lacking some organelle, it will be hard to say whether it was never acquired, or was later abandoned.
One clue would be leftover genes from when it was there. Eukaryotes often find it hard to prune out excess DNA, vs. just turning it off.
- edgyquant 4y agoDNA doesn’t help as much as you think with single celled organisms thanks to HGT. Bacteria, at least, share DNA and thus we can’t use it to determine a linear evolutionary sequence.
- ncmncm 4y agoEukaryotes don't do so much of that.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoHGT?
- reubenswartz 4y agoHorizontal gene transfer. Because biology isn’t complicated enough. :)
- jjtheblunt 4y ago:) [ i should have thought of that. thank you. ]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 323 4y ago> If they find cells lacking some organelle A most famous example is red blood cells, which are emptied of most organelles to make space for hemoglobin.
- gus_massa 4y agoFor example the ancestor of Trypanosoma had chloroplast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypanosoma#Evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypanosoma#Evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglenozoa#Structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglenozoa#Structure