Re: [HAPS-L] most complex cell

["David Evans" <devans@xxxxxxx>]

Alan: Good point when you ask what is intended by the question of complexity? Is it structural at the microscopic or biochemical view? How about taste cells as being genetically complex? Just check out the relatively recent Nobel-worthy work on the genetics of taste. 
 
Certainly not complex structurally but widely underappreciated are adipocytes with storage and heat production being their better-known roles but an appreciation of their activities in the endocrine stage is only now dawning.

>>> amagid@xxxxxxxxx 10/7/2006 1:17 PM >>>

An interesting proto-question but presently undefined. "Complexity" needs to
be defined in a way that permits observations to decide the issue, of
course. I don't know how to approach that since it is a mathematical notion
fundamentally, of which I know very little (My math ed stopped at a graduate
course in "diffyQ").

Nonetheless, I offer Paramecium tetraurelia as a viable candidate. Has two
distinct nuclei (one for sexual reproduction, and the other for the rest of
the week). 1000-fold polyploidy! Does all that any organism does inside a
single cell 0.1 mm long.

This site gives a nice summary of the critter's genomics:

http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/externe/English/Projets/Projet_FN/organisme_FN.h
tml

Enjoy a sodden weekend (if you are in the southeast).

-Alan


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