Electron cryotomographic reconstruction of a C.
merolae cell. n = nucleus; c = chloroplast; p =
peroxisome; er = endoplasmic reticulum. Source
Elio Schaechter has a typically informative and informed post on the smallest eukaryotes, a kind of algae called picoeukaryotes. These guys make up half the biomass of all marine phages. Only known for about five or six years...
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I don't think that you mean phages. Plankton?
John,
Your kind comments gladden out hearts.
Alias Ernest Major,
Yes, we mean phages. See, for example, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_2_164/ai_106290540
John,
Your kind comments gladden out hearts.
Alias Ernest Major,
Yes, we mean phages! See, for example, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_2_164/ai_106290540
I agree with alias Ernest Major that something doesn't quite add up here. An alga (eukaryote) is not a phage (virus that infects bacteria).
The article says that the total mass of picoeukaryotes equals the total mass of phages, not that they are half of the the mass of phages. Like Alias Ernst Major and Stuart I'm under the impression that phages are viruses.
Bacteriophages are a type of virus that attack bacteria. They are usually shortened to just 'phages'. However 'phage' on it's own just translates to 'eater' and could mean something different.
~Lab Rat
Turns out it doesn't. I made a misinterpretation. Picos equal the biomass of phages (viruses).