Sea Slugs Have Plant Mutant Powers

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Rob King

Rob King

If these are the creatures I remember reading about, it's not that they're half plant and half animal, but that they have eaten algae that can carry out photosynthesis and form a symbiotic relationship with the algae after it's been eaten.

I hope it's a different creature, though. That sounds awesome.
 
General Specific

General Specific

Rob King said:
If these are the creatures I remember reading about, it's not that they're half plant and half animal, but that they have eaten algae that can carry out photosynthesis and form a symbiotic relationship with the algae after it's been eaten.
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So Sea Slugs are Algae-Borg?
 
T

TwoBit

"'They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything,' said Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa."

I wish I could do that. I would just sit around all day soakin' up some sunshine. Who needs to eat? It's way overrated.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Rob King said:
If these are the creatures I remember reading about, it's not that they're half plant and half animal, but that they have eaten algae that can carry out photosynthesis and form a symbiotic relationship with the algae after it's been eaten.

I hope it's a different creature, though. That sounds awesome.
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The researchers used a radioactive tracer to be sure that the slugs are actually producing the chlorophyll themselves, as opposed to just stealing the ready-made pigment from algae. In fact, the slugs incorporate the genetic material so well, they pass it on to further generations of slugs.

The babies of thieving slugs retain the ability to produce their own chlorophyll, though they can't carry out photosynthesis until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary chloroplasts, which they can't yet produce on their own.
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Sounds like they are the same ones you're thinking of, but you may have misread your source. In addition to being able to produce chlorophyll genetically, they ALSO eat alge that increases their clorophyll production.
 
Rob King

Rob King

That is awesome!

Every so often, I'll hear of a new creature and I'll think "You want a missing link? This is a missing link. We just don't know for sure what it's linking to."
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Obviously linking to the half plant people that are running the world while masquerading as lizard people...
 
Calleja

Calleja

Dude... what's really awe-inspiring is that this proves DNA from one species can be assimilated into a completely different (even from a different taxonomic kingdom!) one... that's pretty fracking awesome.
 
C

chakz

Adam?


I know I Know, Ninja'd but I'm saying it anyway. At least they won't have to implant them into the stomachs of little girls.
 
Jake

Jake

Looks like they still need to eat to get fresh plastid organelles, though very seldom. So they don't quite have all the pieces for full photosynthesis on their own. Cross-kingdom horizontal gene transfer is still awfully cool, though.
 
Z

Zumbo Prime

I bet next month they're going to find a kind of sea sponge that's half rock.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Jake said:
Looks like they still need to eat to get fresh plastid organelles, though very seldom. So they don't quite have all the pieces for full photosynthesis on their own. Cross-kingdom horizontal gene transfer is still awfully cool, though.
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Yeah, they produce Clorophyll genetically, but still need to eat the alge to get the chloroplasts to completely photosynthesize.
 
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