The term ‘chimaera’ is used to refer to organisms with their bodies encompassing parts from other organisms. As a figment of human imagination, one can find chimaeras in mythologies around the world.Many humans have also claimed to possess plant-like photosynthetic attributes. The concept of breatharianism or “Inedia” (Latin for fasting) is based on the belief that human beings have plant-like essence within, and can live without food forever; all we need is water and sunlight. However, most of these claims have been invalidated by modern scientific research; breatharianism is now considered to be a form of pseudoscience.

There are, however, genuine cases of such plant-animal chimaeras one can find in nature. Most of these creatures often remain relatively unknown outside the arcane world of primary scientific research. So, let’s take a look at some interesting examples of chimaeras and other bizarre creatures that very well exist in nature. Endosymbionts Hatena arenicola is one such extraordinary animal discovered in the year 2000 by two Japanese scientists.

The scientists observed single-celled animals (flagellate eukaryotes) living on a beach in Japan with chloroplasts— the photosynthesising organelle. Animal cells usually do not contain chloroplasts — one of the principal distinguishing characteristics between animals and plants. Further research on its life cycle revealed that these chloroplasts were indeed intact green algae Nephroselmis rotunda that the animal predated upon. After eating these microscopic plants, instead of digesting it, the animal kept it inside its sole cell. The algae supplied the food that it photosynthesised to its predator. The confined algae thus became a feeding apparatus of the animal kidnapper and developed a lifelong allegiance to its captor, a sort of Stockholm Syndrome!

Many single-celled algae like Nephroselmis have a region in their cell called eyespot, a heavily pigmented part that is attracted towards the light (a phenomenon called phototaxis). The eyespot of Nephroselmis enables the otherwise blind Hatena to detect the light and to swim towards it. In other words, the algal eyespot works like an eye for Hatena. When the host animal cell divides into two, one daughter cell gets the whole algae, and keeps on living like a photosynthetic animal, while the other daughter cell, now devoid of the alga, lives like an animal until it ingests yet another alga. Scientists believe that this extraordinary situation in Hatena is due to ongoing “endosymbiosis.”Endosymbiosis (endo = inside, symbiosis = living together) is a prominent theory in cell biology first formulated by Russian botanist Konstantin Mereschkowski in 1905 explaining the origin of organelles –intracellular membrane-bound structures of eukaryotes (cells with true nucleus and organelles). The theory posits that eukaryotes originated when a prokaryote (bacteria) ingested yet another bacteria. The ingested bacteria, instead of getting digested, stayed there and evolved into an organelle that divides when its host cell divides.

Answer the following questions from the above paragraph-

Q-1: What is the concept of   Breatharianism?     

Q-2: How animal cells are distinguished from plant cell?                                          

Q-3: How the algae supplied food to Hatena animal?                                          

Q-4: What is the process of ‘endosymbiosis'?

Q-5: How eukaryotes originated ?