Researchers discovered and cultivated two new classes of marine ciliates thriving in anoxia. Phylogenomics reveals a major clade of obligate anaerobes in ciliates. Findings show novel insights into the evolution of mitochondrial metabolism in anaerobic eukaryotes. Transitions to obligate anaerobiosis might be facilitated by prokaryotic symbionts.
Results provide an insight into the evolutionary mechanisms of early transitions to anaerobiosis and shed light on fine-scale adaptations in mitochondrion-related organelles over a relatively short evolutionary time frame.
See more in an original research article published in Current biology.
The Faculty of Science was established in 1920 as the fifth faculty of Charles University. It currently has 29 departments, 3 museums and a large Botanical Garden where the Study Department and some students’ facilities are located.
Nowadays the faculty is academically and organizationally divided into four sections: biological, geographical, geological and chemical. In addition to these sections the faculty has several specialized teaching and research centres, including interdisciplinary institutions such as the Institute for Environmental Studies. All parts of the faculty are active in both teaching and research.
