• 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

This Feathery Seaweed Is Actually The World’s Largest Single-Celled Organism

April 23, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

When you think “cells” you generally also think “microscopic”, but sometimes evolution likes to take things in a different direction. It’s hard to believe from looking at it, but this green alga, Caulerpa taxifolia is an organism composed of one single cell – the biggest one on the planet.

Also known by the sinister moniker “killer alga”, these feathery green fronds are native to warm tropical waters in areas like the Caribbean coast, the Gulf of Guinea, and the northern Indian Ocean. Its vibrant color attracted aquarium owners who wanted to use it as a tank decoration, but that’s also where the problems began.

Advertisement

It’s now considered an invasive species after an especially hardy and fast-growing strain – known as the aquarium strain – was accidentally leaked into the Mediterranean near Monaco in the 1980s. Exposure to ultraviolet light and chemical stressors had led to the genetic alterations responsible for its rapid growth.

Since then, it has expanded its range far across the seabed, where it causes huge harm to native marine life. Not only does it outcompete other algae and seagrasses for food and light, many native fish aren’t able to safely consume it. 

C. taxifolia was also discovered off the coast of southern California in 2000, and it took a concerted effort from authorities over six years to eradicate it from the area. 

five long strands of green seaweed with small leaves on a dark background

Invasive C. taxifolia, collected off France’s Mediterranean coast.

As well as being able to grow quickly and withstand cooler waters, the aquarium strain of C. taxifolia can achieve impressive sizes, with primary fronds sometimes reaching as far as 60-80 centimeters (24-31 inches) in the depths. And yet, it is still a single-celled organism. How is this possible?

Advertisement

It’s all down to some very elegant organization. C. taxifolia, along with other similar siphonous algae, is an example of a coenocytic organism. Coenocytes contain multiple nuclei within their single cell, because nuclear division can take place without the accompanying formation of a new cell wall.  

As the authors of a 2015 study explained, C. taxifolia gets around this lack of walled-off internal compartments by segregating groups of nuclei into chambers within its body. They discovered that gene transcripts related to different cellular functions were localized to specific regions within the massive cell, called “pseudo-organs”. 

The killer alga is not the only peculiar underwater resident that takes advantage of this arrangement. Check out the intriguing Ventricaria ventricosa, also known as bubble algae, sea grapes, or sailor’s eyeballs.

large green orb that looks a lot like a grape but is actually a single-celled alga; some other sea plants are visible in the foreground, background is dark

Repeat after us: I must not eat the delicious green orb.

Like C. taxifolia, V. ventricosa is coenocytic. Each one of those forbidden boba pearls is a single cell that you could hold in your hand (not that we recommend disturbing nature, as a rule), but with lots of nuclei contained inside. 

Advertisement

Reaching diameters of up to 9 centimeters (3.5 inches), it can’t quite compete with C. taxifolia for world’s largest single-celled organism, but it would certainly win an “algae masquerading as fruit” costume contest. So, that’s something. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Factbox-Top announcements from Apple event
  2. WTO chief says trade must do more to address ‘devastating’ vaccine inequity
  3. How culturally deranged is our climate today?
  4. Internet Figures Out Which Muppets Are Predators And Which Are Prey Based On Their Eyes

Source Link: This Feathery Seaweed Is Actually The World’s Largest Single-Celled Organism

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Lasting 776 Days, This Is The Longest Case Of COVID-19 Ever Recorded
  • Living Cement: The Microbes In Your Walls Could Power The Future
  • What Can Your Earwax Reveal About Your Health?
  • Ever Seen A Giraffe Use An Inhaler? Now You Can, And It’s Incredibly Wholesome
  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • 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