Discovery of the first Micro Organism to survive without oxygen

It is not yet known how this parasite eventually produces energy without oxygen. (Photo: PNAS)

 Kansas: A global team of scientists has discovered a strange animal that does not need oxygen at all to survive.

 This animal with about ten cells is a parasite whose scientific name is "Henneguya salminicola" and it is found in the muscles of salmon.

 The discovery was made jointly by experts from the University of Tel Aviv, the University of Oregon and the University of Kansas, and details of the discovery were recently published on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 Research has shown that it is biologically related to jellyfish and corals, but is also a parasite.  That is, it does not prepare its own food but uses its own food by sticking to another animal (its host) or entering its body.

 When its genome was sequenced, it was found that it did not have a genome related to mitochondria.  The mitochondria in any cell are the components that absorb oxygen and produce energy for the cell.  The absence of mitochondria meant that the parasite did not need oxygen at all.

 It is not yet clear how this parasite eventually generates energy, but it is thought that it may have met its energy needs from the salmon cells around it.

 This discovery is being hailed as very important from an evolutionary point of view, as it has long been thought that all animals need oxygen to survive.  In the past, some simple creatures and animals have been discovered that can survive in very low oxygen environments, but sooner or later they need oxygen.