Post AiwBkADRiP9unWLoIa by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
(DIR) More posts by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
(DIR) Post #Aiw8otyJEpd00Eq2To by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-01-19T05:29:31Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Imagine eating a whole, live chicken, and it just keeps laying perfectly cooked, shell-free scrambled eggs directly into your stomach, and then not only do you need to eat like half as much, but all of your children are born with a chicken in their stomachs as well, in perpetuity. Oh, and just for fun, your chicken and your children's chickens will be genetically related.This is how mitochondria became a thing and also how mitochondrial DNA works.
(DIR) Post #Aiw8owqyWYXmwMQixs by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-01-19T05:34:57Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
The leading theory is literally that several Billion years ago one (1) single celled microbe absorbed a smaller one, similarly to how it would normally eat, but instead of the smaller microbe dying and being digested it just decided to chill there and give all its extra energy to the larger microbe. That unlikely duo is the common ancestor for all eukaryotic life. This is your cousin:
(DIR) Post #Aiw9asr4h2XARJKljk by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-06-15T01:55:41Z
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To be fair that's a liiiiiiiittle euphemistic considering how evolution usually mucks things up. It's like eating a whole live chicken, and holy shit your stomach acid can't kill it, so it burrows out of you like in Alien! Ten million repetitions of this later and holy shit, it can't quite escape you, because you have an iron stomach. You end up with 20 chickens living inside you without doing much good. More of that passes, and holy shit, this chicken started laying eggs you can just eat! You have tons of babies, and that chicken has tons of babies, and with 20 uber chickens inside each of them, they kick the pants off of the other humans who can't get any of their chicken parasites to lay eggs. Ten kajillion years later, you and your chickens could be even more efficient if your chickens were incapable of living on their own, and could do nothing but produce eggs anymore.Meanwhile all the humans who killed off their internal chickens are just chilling over there, so you use your amalgam of parasites advanced amoeba brain to call those humans prokaryotes, and your humans eukaryotes. Wait, why are those humans piling on top of each other over there? Slime mold here we come.
(DIR) Post #AiwBckVysAf33nU7KC by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-06-15T02:16:02Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy Oh to be a slime mold. Out here solving mazes and designing highly efficient public transit maps. All without a brain.
(DIR) Post #AiwBkADRiP9unWLoIa by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-06-15T02:14:07Z
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@cy See the second post for the less euphemistic, but still simplified, version.
(DIR) Post #AiwBkBH1mZcO4v2BWK by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-06-15T02:19:48Z
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Yea I just like thinking of evolution as a series of millions of disasters that sometimes works out.
(DIR) Post #AiwCPSh3v7xLyhtbsW by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-06-15T02:27:14Z
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Othes organelles in eukaryotes were likely separate organisms, too, I heard. Mitochondria, chloroplasts, even the nucleus was probably a separate organism that the larger "eat everything" organism took in, and then evolved so the nucleus-organism kept a copy of all RNA sequences in a protected DNA library, while the enveloping organism degenerated into merely a cell membrane. The nucleus itself has its own separate cell membrane.
(DIR) Post #AiwPQjbdpA347pIVkW by keilajec@akkoma.meows.gay
2024-06-15T03:10:03.315315Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy @mousefriend people often overlook this but the mitochondria has its own DNA, dubbed mDNA, and their own ribosomes. a long time ago, a prokaryote happened to phagocytose another prokaryote. in trade for protection of the engulfer, the engulfed could "dumb down" its metabolism a bit. ultimately, after a really long time, the mitochondria became its own seperated compartment that lives exclusively to generate atp. and it's found in almost every organism on the planet. they have their own central dogma which allows them to replicate, with orders given by the host cell, during the interphase of the cell cycle
(DIR) Post #AiwPQkQKmgb8f30zlQ by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-06-15T03:13:16Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@keilajec @cy can we just say, we love the phrase "a prokaryote happened to phagocytose another prokaryote"? 💚
(DIR) Post #AiwPQlL3Nny5UxYIAi by keilajec@akkoma.meows.gay
2024-06-15T03:20:10.038660Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@mousefriend @cy i love to invent words
(DIR) Post #AiwPQly32p9zRtnQx6 by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-06-15T03:27:01Z
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@keilajec @cy Language is a construct, and should be modified at will as is the universal right of all users of language. 🙏🏽😤By constructing new words, you join a tradition that spans the entire existence of language itself. Stand proud with the Ancients.
(DIR) Post #AiwQH0Q0YrULKHmU52 by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-06-15T05:02:34Z
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The greatest / most tragic thing about this is the only thing a sperm cell affects is the nucleus of the egg cell. All the structures outside of the nucleus come only from the mother. That's why egg cells are so much bigger, to hold all that machinery. So your fertilized egg cell divides, and the mitochondria also divide, but their DNA never recombined with the mitochondria of the father. Your mitochondria are a direct asexual record of your matrilineal heritage. You had the same mitochondria as your mother, and your mother's mother, and her mother, onward.Random cosmic rays etc will mutate the DNA of mitochondria, so you can determine dozens of generations back on the mother's side, to the common mother right before that mutation occurred, to make a vast, multibranched family tree of all humanity. Tracing patrilineal generations is comparatively, practically impossible. Who he was is kind of just... gone.CC: @mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
(DIR) Post #AiwQYJiY3qsQ6VhwRs by mousefriend@this.mouse.rocks
2024-06-15T02:24:31Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy That is definitely an accurate assessment!We simply chose to start our post somewhere in the middle, after many millions of slightly less of a failure than the last failure, to the point where it starts to maybe look like success. Also, we're using the Tolkein defense: this is a translation of an older text. Specifically, for a human audience based on the original writings of a single celled organism. 😂😂