Bacteriofiles

This episode: Single-celled eukaryotes can thrive without oxygen with the help of bacterial endosymbionts that respire nitrate the way our mitochondria respire oxygen!   Thanks to Jon Graf for his contribution! Download Episode (12.4 MB, 18.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brenneria salicis   News item 1 / News item 2   Takeaways The combination of a bacterium and other microbe into the first eukaryote was a big advance in evolutionary history; it made possible the huge variety of different body shapes and sizes we see today. This is thanks to the bacterial endosymbiont, the mitochondrion, taking on specialized metabolic tasks for the cell.   We already knew about endosymbionts that help with oxygen respiration, with photosynthesis (chloroplasts), and with amino acid synthesis (certain endosymbionts in insects). But bacteria have other metabolic abilities that are very useful in certain conditions; do these bacteria ever team up with other organisms? The answer is yes! In this study, ciliates