Genetics has progressed over the recent years. Very sophisticated methods of studying genes and researching how species have evolved from one cell into complex animals. The purpose of the research by Lee, Lai, Malik, Saldarriaga, Kelling, and Slamovits at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University was to observe and gather more information about The Oxyrrhis marina (O. marina). The species is very good for studying about the development of two taxonomic groups of “protists, dinoflagellates and apicomplexans” (1). The molecular structure is simple, so it is at the bottom of the dinoflagellate taxonomic tree. This study was very interesting because the researchers wanted to gather data about the beginnings of dinoflagellates and how the branches of diversification that grew from the origin. (1) The following essay describes more about the research by choosing the scientific terminology with Latin and Greek roots. Knowing the original meanings of the words adds to the understanding of the research.
Simple dinoflagellates can be studied order to understand how the species was originally formed and how they have evolved through time; the species discussed in the research that was reviewed is O. marina. The word ‘dinoflagellate’ is the order under of the organisms studied in the research. The organisms have two flagella, appendages like whips that extend from their body. One flagella extends from a groove in the body and the other extends from the body’s center. The word is a combination of one ancient Greek word and one ancient Latin word. “Dino is from the Greek ‘deino’ which means “terrifying” or “frightful.” ‘Flagellate’is from the Latin word flagellātus, the past participle of to whip. In the water, a flagella whip around with the movement of the water.
The species of the dinoflagellate is Oxyrrhis marina the organism. The reason O. marina has been chosen is because of its placement on the taxonomic tree. The phylogenetic placement is “at the base of the dinoflagellate tree”. The researchers tracked the growth and development of O. marina by creating and evaluation expressed sequence tags(EST) on protists. The protists are from the Kingdom Protista because they do not fit well into the kingdoms of animals or plants. The New Latin word ‘portista’ describes most of the primitive organisms, whereas the ancient Greek word prōtistosm is the origin of the word. Prōtistosm in ancient Greek means ‘the very first. Prōtos in ancient Greek means ‘first.’ They were successful in learning that gene redundancy is a consistent trait the dinoflagellate genomes. Therefore, this research is a very exciting study that will lead to more studies that will lead to a better understanding of the evolution based on the dinoflagellate group.
One hundred percent agreement that Oxyrrhis is a dinoflagellate exists the authors tell us that it is reasonable to consider it “a divergent early representative of the flagellates. Divergent is an adjective that has importance in biology and other sciences because it means that some characteristic or traits is different from other traits, but only deviates from the norm, it is not the opposite, for example. The original is from the Latin meaning to “go in different directions.” The verb diverge is a compound word dis-‘apart’ plus vergere, to bend or turn.
Organisms are the life forms that have many systems that work together to make sure it stays alive. Humans are organisms with very complex and varied systems that maintain life: whereas, the organisms called dinoflagellates are very simple in comparison. The word started being used in 1664 to describe organic structures that exhibited some type of organization (by combining organ plus ism). And then in 1842 the word was used to describe ‘living plants and animals. The basis of the word is ‘organ’ that turns out to have a complicated past. In Medieval Latin (circa 1000 BCE), the word was used to refer to a pipe organ or to an organ, of the body. Earlier in ancient Latin the word organum meant a mechanical device or an instrument. The origin of the work is from the Greek, organon means a tool or a bodily organ and there is a similarity to the word ergon meaning work.
Organisms have been differentiated by many characteristics. Eukaryotes are organism formed from basic units of specialized organelles in the cytoplasm with a membrane protecting the nucleus, they are more complicated than primitive microorganisms. The world is from Greek and the neo-Latin. The Latin eu plus the Greek the word káry(on) meaning kernel plus the neo-Latin ota, and -otes.
Karyokinetic describes the activities involved with cell division inside the nucleus. Karyokinetic was formed from two words sometime during 1880 to 1885The two parts of the word are based on the ancient Greek words from karyo- plus the Greek for movement, kinēsis.
The origin of the word biology or the science of life is good to know because the word is divided into two main parts: ‘bio’ and ‘ology’ that are found in so many words. Ecology (the study of the environment), oceanology (the study of marine science), philology (the study of historical uses of language), and deontology (the study of ethics) are a handful of examples that show the range of studies using ancient Greek. When the letter -o- used as a connector between on syllable and –logy-, half of the meaning o f the word is known. We know that biology is the study of some subject. Knowing that in Ancient Greek ‘bio’ means life and ‘logy’ form ‘logia’ means the ‘study of’ the meaning of the word is easy to deduce. The term ‘biology’ was suggested by G. R. Trevianus, a German scientist in 1802 and Lacmark, a French scientist used the scientific term ‘biology’ in the same year. The origins of the words used in the research study on O. marina have been defined based on Ancient Latin and Ancient Greek.
The study of protists is carried out by many types of scientists including ecophysiologists. Ecophysiology is the study of physiological processes of organisms and how they are linked to the natural environment of the species. The origin of physiology is the Greek word physiologia that means the study of natural science because physis is nature, and we learned above that –ology- is from logia for ‘study of’ of a subject. Physis plus logia means ‘natural science’ and the form ‘physiology’ means “science of the normal function of living things with”. Latin use the words physiologia ‘natura’ for ‘study of’ or ‘the science of’ nature circa 1560. In the 1969 ecology became a popularly used word, and the first two syllables –eco- started to be used to create compound words. Now the prefix ‘eco’ is very common in words, especially when they relate to the green movement or to sustainability such as ‘ecofriendly.’ Eco has developed from the ancient Greek word oikos referring to home. For example, ecology is from the Greek oikos meaning “house, dwelling, place, (or) habitation” The word was introduced to the modern scientific community in about 1873, when it was created by German zoologist, Ernst Haeckel. And then in 1953, ecosphere was introduced to mean “the region around a star where conditions allow life-bearing planets to exist.
The study of evolution developed from Darwin’s study of natural selection. During the time ranging from 1615 to 1625, the word started meaning “change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift”. It came from the Latin stem - ēvolūtiō to form the Latin noun ēvolūtiōn meaning “an unrolling” and “an opening”. The noun is derived from the verb ‘evolute’ plus -iōn, -ion. The processes that ‘evolute’ or evolve in the biological sense include “natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift.” Some people use the word evolution to mean natural selection, but, in fact, natural selection is only one component of evolution. Business and finance has stolen a phrase from natural selection to use as their own in contemporary times “survival of the fittest.” Although they use the phrase, the biological and the business phrase do not mean the same thing. During the process of natural selection, species lose traits that do not help them survive and gain new traits that adapt to their survival needs. In business, the phrase is used to indicate that people who cannot compete are not fit enough to be in the world of finance or business; therefore they naturally lose out to others in the sector.
O. marina was chosen for the biological research on dinoflagellates was chosen because of its position in the taxonomic system. Taxonomic comes from the Greek ‘taxa’ for organizing things into categories or groups. The organization of modern biology is in categories: phylum, order, family genus, and species. In Ancient Greek, the word was táxon; the –on- ending means that the word was in the neuter form.. The adjective, alveoli, describes a species or item has many deep pits like a honeycomb; the original word is from Ancient Latin alveolātus. Originally the meaning was used to describe an item that featured channels and looked like it had been hollowed out. The noun form of the word, generally, is alveolation; but in biology the noun ‘alveolates’ is used to indicate the group of organisms with similar characteristics.
Like eco-, the word ‘genes’ used as the shortened syllable ‘gen’ to form compound words. The words are from the base words ‘gene’ or ‘genes’ that are from ancient Latin genus meaning generation and/or birth. Gene is from the Greek word géneis; it means origin and/or source The Old English (O.E) came from Latin used in the Old Testament used the word genesis to mean ‘to be born’ (fromgignesthai) relating to a person’s ‘birth, race, or descent’ (genos). Therefore, the meaning in the Bible extended the “sense of origin, creation first recorded in English c. 1600.
Genome is derived from the origins of genes, too, because the meaning of genome is the “sum total of genes in a set.” The word genome was coined in German as ‘genom’ by a botanist, Hans Winkler. ." He combined ‘gen’ from gene and’ chroms’ from chromosome to create the compound word genome.
The word chromatin shares the syllable ‘chrom’ and the origin is from the ancient Greek for kroma, meaning color. The word is said to start having common use from about 1882, from the German, which combined to syllables Krhroma from the Greek and –in- a chemical suffix. Chromatic is derived from a base, the ancient Greek word meaning color.
The biological research was specifically studying heterotrophic protists. The adjective heterotrophic refers to organisms that use carbon for growing and energy. In other words, they only eat organic substances. Heterotroph is a compound word: ‘hetero’ plus the Greek word trophikos deriving from trophē for nourishment. The Greek word héteros is used for making compound words that need to be described as having “two, other or different.” The word heterotrophs is in contrast to autotrophs who self-nourish by photosynthesis or synthesizing inorganic material for nourishment.
The discussion above demonstrates how scientific, especially biological terminology, is in ancient languages but we still use it today. So of the words of very familiar from everyday conversations, like the words ecology, evolution, and diverge, even though they have a basis in ancient Greek and Latin. Also since the field of biology relies on these words to describe the world from a scientific point of view, it is easier to understand research articles by understanding the ancient Greek and Latin roots. The essay also demonstrated how the words are interlinked and flow naturally from one meaning to the next, especially by creating compound words. It was also interesting to find out how researchers study evolution.
Works Cited
Lee R., Lai, H., Malike, S.B., Saldarriage, J.F., Keeling, R.J. and C.H. Slamovits. Analysis of EST data of the marine protest Oxyrrhis marina, an emerging model for alveolate biology and evolution, BMC Genomics, 2014, 15: 122, http://biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/122
The Oxford English Dictionary. (2014). Oxford: Clarendon Press http://www.oxforddictionaries.com
Appendix
Analysis of EST data of the marine protest Oxyrrhis marina, an emerging model for alveolate biology and evolution by R. Lee, H. Lai, S.B. Malik, J.F. Saldarriaga, R.J. Keeling and C.H. Slamovits, BMC Genomics, 2014, 15: 122, http://biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/122
