Treats some diseases .. Detects the first living organism without nuclear acid to generate energy

Tariq Cain

An international team of researchers discovered the first living organism without genes in its own mitochondria, and published this sensational discovery in the journal Science Advances on April 24, 2019.

The team includes researchers from France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Egypt, led by Yue Jun, a biologist at the Alfred Figner Institute and the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research.

Exploitation of genetic resources
The team extracted the amyloid parasite, a type of rotary whale (a single cell with a thick cell wall made up of cellulose) from marine plankton in the northern Maine Bay of the United States.

Initially, the researchers discovered a genetic defect in the Alexandrian strain, named in the 1960s as the Egyptian city of Alexandria, which produces a dangerous neurotoxin.

When scientists gave a closer look at the genetic makeup of the amyloid parasites, they found that they survived without basic mitochondrial genes.

Mitochondria, or mitochondria, are minute organelles within the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells, known as the "power generation" center, and usually have a different genetic material than those in the nucleus of the cell.

The team found that these parasitic algae have exploited their genetic material in an unprecedented new way. They contain a functional metocondria and have the ability to produce energy, although there is no genetic material inside it, unlike most living cells.

Gene recruitment
The team analyzed the gene sequence of the whole parasite genome (all its genetic resources) and discovered that the parasite genome consists of about 100 million pairs of bases, a very low number compared to other rotary whales with a genome a thousand times larger than the human genome .

However, the small genome is not unusual for a parasite, since it usually does not produce all the metabolic products it needs to survive; it simply steals it from its host.

Scientists have confirmed that the parasite does not actually contain any genes in the mitochondria, unlike the rest of its species, which has at least three genes within its mitochondria.

The researchers believe that these parasites employ specific genes in the cell nucleus to maintain the function of their own mitochondria to produce energy.

More surprisingly, these parasites contain a very low number of genes in their plastids as they contain only one gene, compared to 14 genes in most rotary whales, which makes them unable to perform photosynthetic function.

However, Yue Jun says, "In this type, all metabolic processes are still operating almost, so they must also be able to achieve good results on their own."

New insights
Ahmed Mustafa, associate professor of biophysics at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, who participated in the study, said in a press release issued by Al-Jazeera Net that the future effects of this discovery are available.

"In our cells, DNA is found in both the nucleus and the mitochondria, and in the nucleus DNA is more protective, and even if damaged, there is a mechanism to repair the damaged one," the statement said.

On the other hand, in mitochondria there is no such mechanism of repair, so the accumulation of untreated mutations in the mitochondrial DNA leads to diseases, including but not limited to neurodegenerative diseases, myocardial infarction, cancer and age-related disorders.

"Our findings could increase the possibility of considering the transfer of nuclear mitochondrial DNA to the nucleus to establish mitochondria without DNA as a potential therapeutic solution for mitochondrial-related diseases," Mustafa said.