In their article ‘A microbial eukaryote with a unique combination of purple bacteria and green algae as endosymbionts’ published in Science Advances, the researchers report the new findings and explain how the oxygen-sensitive purple bacterium lives together with the oxygenic green alga in the ciliate host.
Dr Martin Kreutz, an amateur microscopist and friend of Dr Hess, has been observing the occurrence of this unusual life form for several years.
Symbiosis has given rise to a unique chimeric creature: a motile and voracious cell that, at the same time, uses light energy from anoxygenic photosynthesis to inhabit the deep and oxygen-poor layers of ponds,’ the researchers said.