Evolution News highlights a recently discovered organelle inside cells.
A vault is found in nearly all cells, free-living and part of complex animals. Its function is unclear at the moment. Like most recent discoveries, it didn’t require an electron microscope or MRI; it’s visible with a good optical microscope but nobody noticed it before. The structure is remarkably regular, with exactly 78 protein strands forming the exactly interlocked bivalved outer shell, and a more variable number of single strands tangled up in the middle.
I would have called it a bobbin instead of a vault. It reminds me of the shell containing a roll of thread that slides back and forth under the needle in a sewing machine.
Nearly all critters have vaults. The few that DON’T have vaults are highly salient.
= = = = = START QUOTE:
Although vaults have been observed in many eukaryotic species, a few species do not appear to have the ribonucleoprotein. These include:
Arabidopsis thaliana—a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard.
Caenorhabditis elegans—a free-living nematode that lives in soil.
Drosophila melanogaster—a two-winged insect also known as a fruit fly.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae—a species of yeast.
= = = = = END QUOTE.
These are EXACTLY the plants and animals that scientists routinely use for gene studies, which explains why we haven’t seen the vaults before!
If you want to protect a patent or design from human meddlers, you rig up a few flashy demo units with all the qualities that meddlers love (small number of chromosomes, easy to breed and alter), and insure that the design isn’t in those demo units. Sort of like Copyright Traps By Omission.
Polistra's Mill 