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From ScienceDaily:
Bacteria are immortal as long as they keep dividing. For decades it has been assumed that a continuous, proteinaceous ring is necessary to drive the division of most microorganisms. An international team of researchers has revealed that the symbiont of the marine roundworm breaks the ring dogma and divides without.
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The division of the R. hypermnestra symbiont leaves the dazzled scientists at a loss to know which kind of evolutionary advantage this quirky division might bring. One possible explanation is that this would allow the symbiont to remain faithful to its worm host. “Longitudinal division might have evolved to transmit host attachment to both daughter cells. In other words, to avoid that one daughter cell is lost to the sand or the sea,” speculates Bulgheresi.Paper. (paywall) – Nikolaus Leisch, Nika Pende, Philipp M. Weber, Harald R. Gruber-Vodicka, Jolanda Verheul, Norbert O. E. Vischer, Sophie S. Abby, Benedikt Geier, Tanneke den Blaauwen, Silvia Bulgheresi. Asynchronous division by non-ring FtsZ in the gammaproteobacterial symbiont of Robbea hypermnestra. Nature Microbiology, 2016; 2: 16182 DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.182More.
Advice: Forget “evolutionary.” Study the bacteria. Get back to us when you have a good idea.
You know, Bulgheresi, it’s the same advice I’d give to a junior hack writer. You got a good lead. Now come back when you have a story.
See also: What the fossils told us in their own words
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