A research team's insight has a host of insinuations ranging from developing treatments for brain-eating infections to understand better how to live on this planet evolved much massive diversity.
As specified in a EurekAlert! report, the researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst announced that an amoeba known as "Naegleria has evolved more unique sets of tubulins," applied for specific cellular processes, compared to what was previously believed.
Much of life on earth depends on a series of polymers known as microtubules, comprising tubulin, to complete a wide range of tasks within their cells.
These so-called microtubules are similar to the 2x4s of the cell. They are also used in all things, from helping with the movement of the cell to transporting food and waste within the cell and providing the cell with constructional backing.
'Naegleria'
Microtubules also help in mitosis, when a single cell splits into two by replicating its chromosomes and then pulling every set to the cell's opposite sides before splitting itself into two.
One of the key instants in mitosis is when a spindle, comprising microtubules, grabs the chromosomes and helps set them apart into two identical sets.
This is where Naegleria comes in. Biologists had known before that Nagegleria uses a specific kind of tubulin during mitosis.
Nonetheless, this new research led by a postdoc in biology Katrina Velle from UMass Amherst, the study's lead author, exhibits that Naegleria also uses three distinct tubulins, particularly during mitosis.
Tubulins Compared
A pair of tubulins is employed only during mitosis, while the flagellate tubulin specializes in a single movement.
Authors of the study published in Current Biology then compared the tubulins and the constructions they created to each other, as well as those of more commonly examined species.
Such implications of this work are interesting, and they range from the practical to the theoretical approach. For example, the team examined a species of Naegleria, Naegleria gruberi, which is closely linked to Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba that can consume the brain.
Velle explained if the basic biology of Naegleria can be revealed, they can learn "how to kill it" by developing drugs that target the unique tubulins of amoeba.
An Attempt to Answer How Life on Earth Operates
Nevertheless, as indicated in a similar Euroasia Review report, Naegleria helps understand the basic rules that govern life on earth. According to biology professor Lillian Fritz-Laylin at UMass Amherst, all organisms need to duplicate themselves, who's also the senior author of the paper.
She added it's known that the duplication processes are working for some cells, although there is a massive set they don't understand. Essentially, Naegleria lets them test the rules scientists have come up with to find out "if they hold here."
According to Fritz-Laylin, people frequently think of technology as driving science. Although, in this case, the questions the study authors are trying to answer are quite fundamental to the manner life on Earth is operating, and of such interest to a lot of scientific specialties that there's a need to assemble an international research team composed of different experts.
Related information about brain-eating amoeba is shown on Duke University's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on Amoeba in Science Times.
