Researchers studying brackish water in North Carolina identified two previously undescribed photosynthetic amoebae, Paulinella marae and Paulinella murrayi. Their work, published in the Journal of Phycology in 2026, raises the number of described photosynthetic Paulinella species from four to six. A motel room served as an improvised workspace during fieldwork, but the species identifications rested on microscopy, cell isolation, genomic sequencing and comparative analysis—not the room itself.
What did the team discover?
The team led by evolutionary biologist Julia Van Etten described two new species in the genus Paulinella: Paulinella marae and Paulinella murrayi. The study reports that these additions bring the described photosynthetic Paulinella species count from four to six. The paper was first published on September 4, 2026, in the Journal of Phycology.
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The organisms are tiny: the study notes that Paulinella cells are typically 10–30 micrometers in diameter. They were collected from brackish water at Roanoke Sound in Nags Head, North Carolina, on May 12, 2025, at a site the researchers had visited since 2021.
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Paulinella offers a rare, comparatively recent example of primary endosymbiosis: an ancestor incorporated a cyanobacterium, which became a photosynthetic compartment called a chromatophore. The chromatophore still has its own DNA. The study estimates that this event occurred around 90–140 million years ago.
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That makes the lineage useful for examining how an incorporated photosynthetic partner can evolve toward organelle-like integration. The primary plastid origin in the ancestor of Archaeplastida—the broad group that includes plants and many algae—is estimated in the study to be more than 1.5 billion years old. Because the Paulinella event is much more recent, it offers researchers a model for investigating evolutionary processes that are difficult to reconstruct from ancient events. It does not directly recreate the origin of plant life or establish what happened in every early lineage.
The study reports conserved chromatophore gene content alongside structural differences, including genome rearrangements and inversions. It also finds that phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear and organelle data do not fully agree. The authors note possible explanations including substitution saturation, limited taxon sampling and differing evolutionary signals; the disagreement is not, by itself, a settled account of the organisms’ evolutionary history.
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How did an improvised field setup lead to a scientific paper?
The motel-room detail comes from reporting by The New York Times, syndicated by The Philadelphia Inquirer on October 2, 2026. The account describes researchers using an $80-per-night room during spring 2025 fieldwork as a makeshift workspace, with jugs of brackish water and marsh grass and bedside tables serving as microscope stands. That setting helped accommodate fieldwork; it was not a substitute for the broader scientific process.
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The paper describes years of ecological observations and a more extensive laboratory workflow. The team isolated individual cells using pulled Pasteur pipettes, regular micropipettes and toothbrush bristles attached to colored pencils. Researchers used light microscopy, inverted fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, then amplified whole genomes, sequenced DNA and compared genomes and phylogenies. Some cells were damaged during washing and transfer, illustrating the practical challenge of working with rare, fragile organisms. Sungpil Han and Hwan Su Yoon’s team at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea contributed sequencing and analysis.
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Van Etten initially spotted a Paulinella cell with a microscope, but seeing a cell is not the same as establishing a new species. The taxonomic conclusions depended on the study’s combination of observation, imaging and genetic evidence.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the funding story establish?
The funding chronology comes from the Inquirer’s syndicated New York Times account, not the scientific paper. It reports that a 2025 federal funding freeze temporarily took the National Science Foundation payment system offline and left Van Etten locked out of a fellowship reported at $60,000 a year. The account says the memo was rescinded and payment operations resumed about a week later after court intervention, although some grants were lost. It reports that Van Etten and collaborator Andrew Willoughby resumed research and pay.
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The report presents the disruption as temporary for Van Etten and Willoughby and as part of the circumstances that brought collaborators together. It does not establish that permanent funding loss caused the discovery. The scientific result is the product of field observations, microscopy and genomic analysis described in the peer-reviewed paper.
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What the discovery adds—and what it does not
- It adds two formally described species. The paper names Paulinella marae and Paulinella murrayi, increasing the described photosynthetic species count from four to six.
- It adds material for studying organelle evolution. A relatively recent primary endosymbiosis and a chromatophore that retains its own DNA make Paulinella a useful comparative system.
- It does not settle every evolutionary question. The authors report discordant phylogenetic signals and discuss several possible sources; more evidence is needed to resolve the lineage history fully.
- It does not show that the species are common. The authors suggest low-abundance Paulinella may be more widely distributed than current records indicate, but that remains a hypothesis, not a completed census.
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