Science is Fun Fridays!
Scientists have caught an evolutionary event in real time - primary endosymbiosis is thought to have occurred only two other times in the history of life on Earth.
That is when two lifeforms merge, one engulfing the other, using it like an internal organ. In exchange, the host cell provides nutrients, energy, and protection.
The first time this happened, an archaea swallowed a bacterium that became the mitochondria, "the powerhouse of the cell."
The second time, some of those advanced cells absorbed cyanobacteria that could harvest energy from sunlight, becoming chloroplasts, and giving us plants.
And now, a species of algae has engulfed a cyanobacterium that allows them to use nitrogen fixation - combining nitrogen from the air with other elements to create more useful compounds.
The scientists will continue studying these nitroplasts.
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