• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

These “Solar-Powered Sea Slugs” Steal Plants’ Superpowers To Feed On Sunlight

February 3, 2025 by Deborah Bloomfield

A scientist in Japan made a chance and shocking discovery when they saw that a sea slug in their lab had lost its head. Expected to wither away without its vital organs, the head surprised everyone by surviving long enough to grow a whole new body. How? Well, it seemed they’d gone solar-powered.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

Among the Sacoglossan sea slugs, we see a phenomenon known as kleptoplasty in which some species are able to incorporate the photosynthetic superpowers of plants by eating algae and incorporating its cells into their own tissues. Yes, it seems the sacoglossans throw up something of an anomaly when it comes to that old game “animal, vegetable, mineral,” being an animal that boasts one of the trademarks of leafy green plants.

One of the most remarkable examples of this is the sea slug Elysia chlorotica, which has the nickname “a leaf that crawls”, and it’s easy to see why. Confirmed kleptoplasts, they have specialized mouthparts that enable them to suck the chloroplasts out of algae and store them in their own digestive cells for months, putting them to work for longer than even the algae would have. Stealing the photosynthetic cells from their food not only enables these slugs to become solar-powered, but it can also double up as camouflage.

It all sounds very impressive, but isn’t it a bit too simple? How can it be that the cells from one organism can just suddenly be put to work in something entirely different? It’s a good question, and one raised by scientists studying Elysia in a 2014 study.

“There is no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal cell,” said Sidney Pierce from the University of South Florida. “And yet here, they do. They allow the animal to rely on sunshine for its nutrition. So if something happens to their food source, they have a way of not starving to death until they find more algae to eat.”

Prior to Pierce and colleagues’ research, we didn’t know how the sea slugs were able to store and make use of the stolen chloroplasts, but DNA amplification, sequencing, and advanced imaging techniques revealed a genetic mechanism that could explain it. They discovered that one of several algal genes needed to repair damage to chloroplasts and keep them functioning is present on the slug’s chromosome. It marked one of the first times this kind of functional gene transfer from one multicellular species to another had been identified, bringing with it a new appreciation of what it takes for a slug to become a leaf.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

Now if only I could harness the long life of Twinkies.  

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Russia arrests top cybersecurity executive in treason case
  2. Is LK-99 A Superconductor Or Not? What To Know About Recent Superconductor Claims
  3. The Mystery Of The Oldest Mummy In Africa
  4. Incredibly Rare Footage Of Bigfin Squid 3,300 Meters Deep In The Pacific

Source Link: These “Solar-Powered Sea Slugs” Steal Plants’ Superpowers To Feed On Sunlight

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • 78-Million-Year-Old Crater Reveals Asteroid Impacts Can Create Long-Lasting Habitats For Microbial Life
  • 24 Years Of NASA Satellite Data Suggest The World Is Getting Darker, And It’s Happening Faster In The North
  • Two Black Holes Circling Each Other Captured In Image For The Very First Time
  • Rapa Nui’s Famous Moai Statues Really “Walked” – Physics Confirms It
  • Could Dogs Be Taught To Talk With Language? This Lab Wants To Find Out
  • SETI Paper Responds To Claims Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Might Be An Alien Spacecraft
  • Rare Chance To See “Pink Meanie” Jellyfish With 20-Meter Tentacles Blooming Off Texas
  • Stranded Dolphins’ Brains Show Signs Of Alzheimer’s-Like Disease
  • Natural Sweetener Stevia Could Help Bolster Common Hair Loss Treatment
  • “Dig Deep, And Persevere”: Number 16, The World’s Longest-Lived Spider, Died Aged 43
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: What Is Time And How Do We Measure It?
  • Marty Goddard: The History Of The Sexual Assault Kit
  • What’s Really Lurking In The Deep Dark Waters Of Loch Ness?
  • Another Comet 3I/ATLAS Record Got Us Asking: How Do We Know An Object Is Interstellar?
  • Scientists Read The Shells Of Clams That Live For 500 Years, And They Tell A Troubling Story
  • New Blood Test Offers Potential For “Simple, Accurate” ME/CFS Diagnosis, Researchers Claim – Other Experts Aren’t So Sure
  • In 1927, A Physicist Conducted A Mass Psychic Experiment Involving 25,000 People
  • Check Out This “Truly Exceptional” Fossil Of A Two-Headed Reptile That Lived 125 Million Years Ago
  • Longest Woolly Rhino Horn Ever Recovered Just Popped Out Of The Siberian Permafrost
  • Deer Can Learn Commands Like “Come”, But The Most Restless Ones In Class Take Longer To Learn
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version