Tiny Genome May Reflect Organelle in the Making
October 12, 2006 | Source: ScientificAmerican.com
The record for world’s smallest genome has been smashed by a bacterium that lives inside a sap-feeding insect. The microbe is missing almost half of the genes thought to be essential for its kind to persist, raising the possibility that it is becoming an organelle similar to a mitochondrion or chloroplast.