Oophila : an interesting unicellular algae.

In Lesson 16-1, we introduced many suffixes related to attraction. They are :

-phil, -phile, -philia, -philic, -tropin, -tropism.

There's a unicellular algae named Oophila amblystomatis, which live symbiotically with spotted salamander (Amblystoma maculatum) and hence its name "amblystomatis".

spotted salamander. Source: wiki

How about its genus "Oophila"? Well, it is a combination of one prefix and one suffix.

The former part oo is originated from the prefix  oo- , which comes from Greek ōon, meaning egg.

The later part -phila is originated from the suffix -philia, which is written as philein in Greek. It means "like, loving".

Putting them together, Oophila meaning egg-loving.

Is this algae egg-loving? Apparently so. It is living with the embryo of spotted salamander symbiotically. As a result, the embryo of spotted salamander looks greenish. The special thing with this relationship is the algae is actually living INSIDE the cell. This is the first time scientists discovered such a thing. Usually, the adaptive immune system of vertebrates will attack the foreign tissues (in this case, the algae). However, it seems that the algae has made peace with the salamander's immune system.

Scientists discovered that the salamander cells have arranged their mitochondria alongside with the algae, so their mitochondria can use as much oxygen from the algae as possible; and the salamander algae (Oophila's nickname) can use the metabolic waste (CO₂) from salamander's mitochondria.

Scientists also found that spotted salamander can pass the algae through generations. Isn't it cool?

References:

Anna Petherick. 2010/7/30. A solar salamander-Photosynthetic algae have been found inside the cells of a vertebrate for the first time. Nature News.

Ryan Kerney, Eunsoo Kim, Roger P. Hangarter, Aaron A. Heiss, Cory D. Bishop, and Brian K. Hall. 2011. Intracellular invasion of green algae in a salamander host. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 108（16）：6497–6502, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1018259108