Tag

Ciliates

All articles tagged with #ciliates

science20 days ago•8 min saved

Tiny Protist Rewrites Stop Signals, Upending Genetic Code Rules

A freshwater ciliate, Oligohymenophorea sp. PL0344, was found to repurpose stop codons: TGA remains a stop, while TAA encodes lysine and TAG encodes glutamic acid, with additional codon reassignments in related ciliates. This discovery shows that genetic decoding in some microbes is far more flexible than the long-held universal genetic code assumption.

via ScienceDaily|

#ciliates #genetic-code #protists

environment3 years ago•4 min saved

Protozoan parasite identified as culprit behind Caribbean sea urchin die-off.

A team of scientists has identified the cause of the 2022 sea urchin die-off in the Caribbean and Florida as microscopic organisms known as ciliates. The die-off will have dire long-term effects on the region's coral reefs and ecosystem. The researchers hope that by identifying the culprit, they can proactively protect the remaining sea urchins and give coral reefs a fighting chance.

via Gizmodo|

#ciliates #coral-reefs #ecosystem