14 DAY TRIAL // We are looking for life on other planets, and we have not even discovered what's on Earth.
And I'm not referring to species, but to whole groups of organisms.
Recently, European biologists have discovered an entirely new group of tiny and bizarre marine algae in the Arctic Ocean, while analyzing DNA sequences in samples of seawater.
The previously unknown microalgae were baptized picobiliphytes ("pico" for "tiny"; phycobilins are the main pigments of these algae). "These organisms represent a new evolutionary lineage," said team member Fabrice Not, a marine biologist at the Institut de Ci?ncies del Mar, Spain.
"The discovery didn't provide any sister relationship to any other groups of organisms known to date. It means that this new group is probably a high-rank taxon [group] in terms of classification," Not added.
"In fact, the divergence of this group from known organisms is as great as the difference between land plants and animals," said Connie Lovejoy, a biologist at Universit Laval in Canada.
"Over the past year the research team has used various techniques to see and count the tiny picobiliphytes, though the scientists have not yet been able to grow the microalgae in the lab", said Not.
These algae seem to be common in the northern seas. The phycobilin pigments give off picobiliphytes orange fluorescence when bathed in blue light. "The picobiliphytes, like most microalgae, probably acquired their pigments through an evolutionary act of cooperation," said Not.
"Another organism probably lived inside the picobiliphytes and provided them with an energy supply in the form of the light-absorbing pigments," Not said.
"In this case, judging from the type of pigments involved, the picobiliphytes probably got their pigments from a reddish microalgae," he added.
"While the discovery is a potential boom for biodiversity, it isn't likely to attract investors just yet," Not said. "The main fields of research impacted by this discovery are the microbial ecology and the evolution of eukaryotes (organisms whose cells contain nucleus)".
Robert Andersen, director of the Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton in Maine, disagrees: other phycobilin-producing algae are commercially farmed for their pigments, used in products such as cosmetics. "Phycobilipigments are also rich sources of protein, and they are used as a food source in aquaculture hatcheries".