Cells’ innards may share origin
From Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology
Despite their outward differences, many of the organelles within cells may have a common evolutionary heritage.
In a case of scientific serendipity, data gathered by separate research teams working on various organelles lend new support to the theory that a simpler cellular compartment gave rise to the organelles’ diverse modern forms.
“We all had been looking at specific organelles, but sitting there [at the conference] listening to the other scientists speak, there seemed to be something common in all of them,” says Damien Devos of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.