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Photosynthetic amoeba - with Arwa Gabr
"Photosynthesis is very important if you care about breathing."
Half of the oxygen on the planet is produced by microbes. Dr. Awra Gabr talks about the photosynthetic Paulinella lineage of rhizarian amoebas that represent an independent acquisition of a photosynthetic organelle in eukaryotic cells. This is HUGE because this kind of event has only successfully occurred two other times in the four billions year history of life on Earth. We talk about the ins and outs of this process, why Paulinella is the most annoying organism to work with with, and I explain why half of the episodes of this podcast have been about amoebas.
Dr. Arwa Gabr, Ph.D. is a graduate of the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics program at Rutgers University. You can follow her on LinkedIn and find her publications on ResearchGate.
In the intro of this episode I give a kind of convoluted explanation of amoebas. Here is a link to an open access paper from 2019 about how eukaryotic life is classified. There have been other papers in the three years since that have added to this field but I like this one because Figure 2 is a great illustration of the eukaryotic tree of life and you can see where the Discoba (Percolozoa), Rhizarians, and Amoebozoa all fit (as it currently stands). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.031
For more info on microbes and to follow updates of this podcast, find @couch_microscopy on Instagram, @CouchMicroscopy on Twitter, or visit www.couchmicroscopy.com/store for merch!
Music is "Introducing Cosmic Space" by Elf Power and "Vorticella Dreams" by L. Felipe Benites.
While some of the content on this podcast may be relevant to human or veterinary medicine, this information is not medical advice. The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of any institution.
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By Julia Van Etten
5
1717 ratings
"Photosynthesis is very important if you care about breathing."
Half of the oxygen on the planet is produced by microbes. Dr. Awra Gabr talks about the photosynthetic Paulinella lineage of rhizarian amoebas that represent an independent acquisition of a photosynthetic organelle in eukaryotic cells. This is HUGE because this kind of event has only successfully occurred two other times in the four billions year history of life on Earth. We talk about the ins and outs of this process, why Paulinella is the most annoying organism to work with with, and I explain why half of the episodes of this podcast have been about amoebas.
Dr. Arwa Gabr, Ph.D. is a graduate of the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics program at Rutgers University. You can follow her on LinkedIn and find her publications on ResearchGate.
In the intro of this episode I give a kind of convoluted explanation of amoebas. Here is a link to an open access paper from 2019 about how eukaryotic life is classified. There have been other papers in the three years since that have added to this field but I like this one because Figure 2 is a great illustration of the eukaryotic tree of life and you can see where the Discoba (Percolozoa), Rhizarians, and Amoebozoa all fit (as it currently stands). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.031
For more info on microbes and to follow updates of this podcast, find @couch_microscopy on Instagram, @CouchMicroscopy on Twitter, or visit www.couchmicroscopy.com/store for merch!
Music is "Introducing Cosmic Space" by Elf Power and "Vorticella Dreams" by L. Felipe Benites.
While some of the content on this podcast may be relevant to human or veterinary medicine, this information is not medical advice. The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of any institution.