Recent research by Polish scientists has unveiled that certain gut bacteria inhabiting grasshoppers possess an astonishingly low gene count of just over 60 genes. This discovery is highlighted in the journal Nature Communications and contrasts sharply with the human genome, which contains around 20,000 protein-coding genes, and the wheat genome, which has over 100,000. The findings suggest that these bacteria, such as Candidatus Sulcia muelleri and Candidatus Vidania fulgoroidea, may function more like organelles within the host cells rather than as independent organisms, much like mitochondria or chloroplasts in eukaryotic cells, which are believed to have originated from ancient bacteria.