Hatena arenicola

Hatena arenicola
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Class: Leucocryptea
Order: Katablepharida
Genus: Hatena
Species:
H. arenicola
Binomial name
Hatena arenicola
Okamoto and Inouye, 2006

Hatena arenicola is a species of single-celled eukaryotes discovered in 2000, and first reported in 2005.[1] It was discovered by Japanese biologists Noriko Okamoto and Isao Inouye at the University of Tsukuba, and they gave the scientific description and formal name in 2006.[2] The species is a flagellate, and can resemble a plant at one stage of its life, in which it carries a photosynthesizing alga inside itself,[3] or an animal, acting as predator in another stage of its life. Researchers believe that this organism is in the process of secondary endosymbiosis, in which one organism is incorporated into another, resulting in a completely new life form.

  1. ^ Okamoto, N.; Inouye, Isao (2005). "A Secondary Symbiosis in Progress?". Science. 310 (5746): 287. doi:10.1126/science.1116125. PMID 16224014. S2CID 22081618.
  2. ^ Okamoto, Noriko; Inouye, Isao (2006). "Hatena arenicola gen. et sp. nov., a katablepharid undergoing probable plastid acquisition". Protist. 157 (4): 401–19. doi:10.1016/j.protis.2006.05.011. PMID 16891155.
  3. ^ Staedter, Tracy (14 October 2005). "Marine Microorganism Plays Both Host and Killer". Scientific American. Retrieved 2009-07-06.