Picoeukaryotes

Jensena


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 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