Photosynthetic Slugs
Imagine if you only had to eat a single meal in your lifetime. For Elysia chlorotica slugs, this is a reality.
This animal innovator feeds on chlorophyll containing algae, isolates the chloroplasts--which produce the chlorophyll necessary for photosynthesis--and then genetically integrates the organelles into its own cells. Biologists have shown that "once a young slug has slurped its first chloroplast meal from one of its few favored species of Vaucheria algae, the slug does not have to eat again for the rest of its life. All it has to do is sunbathe."
However, there is still some skepticism as to whether or not the sea slugs are actually producing new chlorophyll pigments or just using a stored supply from their algal origins. Sidney K. Pierce, from the University of South Florida in Tampa, experiemented with Elysia and confirmed that they were in fact producing new chlorophyll independently--and therefore photosynthesizing--using the borrowed organelles. This is an unprecendented evolutionary achievement. Pierce's work is set to be published in the journal Symbiosis in the near future.
Image "Slug" by Star5112 on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Liscensing.
- 2-8-10
- Matthew Toussaint's blog
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photosynthetic energy revolution
lotion...
I can see a future world where humans and machines get their energy direction from the sun by way of photosynthesis.
Yeah, and if it doesn't happen soon, expect conspiracy theories about how the ``suntan oil cartel'' is suppressing it.
Photosynthesis-Powered Humans Visualized
I can see a future world where humans and machines get their energy directly from the sun by way of photosynthesis.
See it!
(Erm, ... skipping into it a bit, ... But it's not a good place to start...)
amazing!
"The only thing constant in life is change" -François de la Rochefoucauld
Elysia not alone
At the tail end of my undergrad studies I worked with a species of marine flatworm called Convolutriloba retrogemma that exists in a similar symbiotic relationship with algae cells. I dont think the worm gets all of its substance from the algae it either ingests (if born from an egg) or receives from the mother (if born through fission) but we do know that it requires some photosynthetic product, without light they die after about 48 hours.
As a family these worms are much simpler and older than slugs in evolutionary terms, as their lineage never found it necessary to develop a digestive tract. When it consumes larval anthopods, its cells reorganize into a false stomach that directly hydrolyzes the food. Also, they are some of the most successful regenerators, only a few cells are enough to eventually grow a whole new worm. They also contain an extremely potent binary toxin that acts a bit like glow sticks or epoxy (mix A and B and get a reaction) that can easily kill anything that messes with them.
Discoveries like these worms and slugs and the slow unraveling of their secrets will, I think, lead to all sorts of technologies from pllant cars to tissue regeneration therapies to more successful drug delivery platforms and nearly anything else we can think of. As much as our hard technology can boggle the mind and enhance mankinds quality of living, these future soft technologies that mix humanities focus, reflection and diligence with nature's time-tested tricks will usher in an era of truly smart and ubiquitous adaptability unlike anything the world has ever seen.
and so can you...
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