Folks. I had no idea what a midbody was until this month. ResearchGate AI sent me an article about it and here we are! Now before you rush off to TikTok or cat videos, give me just a moment of your time to explain the significance of this research to you and your family: This midbody thingy could explain the origins of cancer itself. How so? I’ll be as brief as possible: When stem cells divide they create two daughter cells as shown in the photo above. However, right after that division there remains a particle between them called the “midbody”. In the photo above this tiny particle is stained green and surrounded on both ends by microtubules stained red. The fate of that midbody could very well determine the fate of your very existence! Here’s why:
The midbody can be reabsorbed by either of the two daughter cells. Whichever one retains it remains a stem cell i.e. capable of reproducing more daughter cells. The other cell become differentiated and turns into a cell involved with maintaining bodily functions depending upon what kind of cell it is, say a blood cell for example. However, the midbody may be released entirely from both daughter cells and enter the extracellular space where other non-related cells may absorb it. If this occurs, these non-daughter cells may become cancerous. You know the rest of that story.
So how is the midbody able to do all of these things within a cell? As the news story above tells you, the midbody contains RNA and other molecules which enable it to behave like a kind of non-budding “virus”, i.e. instead of creating a plethora of infectious viral particles and releasing them from the cell, this virus takes over the entire cell and forces it to make more cells in order to make a copy of itself in the process. This is why it’s important for any “runaway” midbodies to be encapsulated and destroyed by phagocytosis. A fancy term for this is apoptosis, which is the process by which damaged cells carefully self-destruct themselves so no renegade DNA can be released into the extracellular space, including the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
So how does any of this relate to my theory on cellular differentiation? Well, I’m certainly glad you asked! I suspect that lurking inside all of that midbody RNA is a single molecule of DNA which is being used to make copies of itself in the form of RNA, a kind of “virus” responsible for cellular replication. It could be even more than that. It could be the remnants of a degenerate nuclear endosymbiont whose services are no longer needed.
So, you may ask. What is the significance of that? Well, my model for terminal or irreversible cellular differentiation requires one of two events: 1) a loss of DNA from the genome in the form of circles or 2) a fusion of two circles attached to each other to activate gene expression by deleting a fragment of DNA between them. Loss of intact circles requires a means of disposing of them so they are no longer part of the genome. What better way to do it than using a midbody to excise those circles responsible for replication? DNA from nuclear endosymbionts that is deleted later as cells continue to differentiate without a mitotic event can be released as exosomes for phagocytosis. This would be like a partial apoptotic event. You can learn more by checking out videos on my home page evolution4.wordpress.com.
Evolution Turned Upside Down 