Strange creatures in "poisonous lake" reveal origin of life

(NLDO) - The strange creature in Mono Lake (USA) is a new species and is described as having "an unusual relationship" with surrounding species.

According to Science Alert, the strange creature was named Barroeca monosierra by scientists, belonging to the choanoflagellates bacteria group.

It is a single-celled organism that can gather together to form a population that then functions as a single multicellular organism.

However, Barroeca monosierra has many differences compared to other species in the group.

Clusters of "Mono Lake aliens" form spheres and a microscope image of one cluster stained with fluorescent dye shows the many other bacteria trapped inside - Photo: Alain Garcia De Las Bayonas

A team of researchers from the US, UK and Spain found this strange creature in Mono Lake in the US, a lake with extreme composition and completely unsuitable for life by conventional definition.

Located in California, this “poison lake” is three times saltier than the Pacific Ocean and is filled with chlorides, carbonates, and sulfates that have accumulated over 80,000 years. Only a few tiny, odd creatures can survive there.

However, this seems to be the promised land for the strange creature that the research team has just found.

They thrive in Lake Mon, forming colonies of nearly 100 cells, four times larger than those of other species in the group.

These single-celled organisms resemble sperm cells, with long tails called flagella that they use to propel themselves. When they form a swarm, individuals point their flagella outwards to help the swarm spin and roll like a spiked ball.

In other choanoflagellate populations, the heads of each organism meet in the middle.

But in these Barroeca monosierra populations, the middle is hollow, with cells connected by an extracellular matrix of proteins and carbohydrates.

More surprisingly, when analyzed, scientists discovered a chaotic mess of DNA in this supposedly empty middle part.

RNA probes revealed the presence of bacteria there, while experiments with fluorescent amino acids showed they were still alive, not just leftover food scraps from the Barroeca monosierra colony's previous meal.

This strange creature-like structure has surrounded and trapped many other species within its enclosure.

But in another experiment, the authors found that the bacteria inside actively entered and formed a symbiotic community with the alien organism.

Never before has this group of microorganisms or anything like it been known to live in symbiosis with bacteria.

That turns the entire colony of alien organisms into something resembling a multicellular individual of our own kind, with its own microbiome in its gut.

According to the article published in the scientific journal mBio, that makes scientists suspect that this strange creature is a descendant of an ancestor that billions of years ago played an important role in the evolution of Earth's organisms.

It was the leap from simple unicellular life to multicellular organisms.

The strange creature of Mono Lake is still being cared for by scientists with the hope of finding more details to help explain the origin of complex multicellular life from its own body, which also explains our own origin.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/my-sinh-vat-la-o-ho-nuoc-doc-tiet-lo-nguon-goc-su-song-196240901102525276.htm