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Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga - Tyler H. Coale, et al. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38603509/
but wait, there’s more:
The nitroplast: A nitrogen-fixing organelle A bacterial endosymbiont of marine algae evolved to an organelle https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8571
Wow, this sounds really nifty!!! Anyone got full paper accesss? $30 a pop is a bit pricey, for this humble one.
Hey can someone summarize this into lame man terms
What I’ve got is New organelle which evolved from a separate organism similar to mitochondria and it allows alga to process nitrogen
Is that right? And what does this mean for the ecosystem
This is exactly right. The alga has one more organelle that originated as a bacterial symbiont, just like mitochondria and chloroplasts, which is super cool! The alga, Braarudosphaera bigelowii, is a coccolithophore, which is very cool by itself. They are important part of the carbon cycle. And they look supercool - they are covered in calcareous scales and this species is shaped like a dodecahedron!!! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Braarudosphaera_bigelowii.jpg
It means they can fertilize themselves, removing the one thing plants can’t do on their own.
Is this as exciting as it seems? It seems pretty exciting.
Ah shit if this takes off plants won’t need us anymore.
