Post-Its? smtp? IRC? Ancient Kind: RNA part 1…


And since the RNA inside a cell is constantly changing, “the message that you can send to your neighboring cell” can also change very quickly, [Susanne] Erdmann said. In that sense, it’s more like a quick text message or email meant to communicate timely information than, say, runes etched in stone or a formal memo on letterhead.

While it seems that neighboring archaea are taking up and internalizing EVs from their fellow cells, it’s not clear yet whether the messages affect them. Erdmann is also already wondering what happens to these vesicles in the wild, where many different organisms could be within earshot of the messages they carry.

“How many other different organisms in the same environment could take up this message?” she asked. “And do they just eat it and use the RNA as food, or do they actually detect the signal?”

While that may still be a mystery for Haloferax, other researchers have demonstrated that cells across species, kingdoms and even domains of life can send and receive remarkably pointed molecular missives. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Perplexity

Hamza Chaudhry