RESEARCHERS FIND A NEW ORGANELLE EVOLVING

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Endosymbiosis is a process in which a once free-living organism is incorporated into a cell. This can result in the organism becoming an organelle, a compartment within cells surrounded by membranes that performs specialized functions. Researchers may have found a new case of the extremely rare event. An organelle devoted to fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere is being observed in the process of specialization. Called a nitroplast, the organelle is limited to a single lineage of algae, likely due to its relatively recent origin, with the relationship between the nitroplast and its host cell only dating back about 100 million years.