firedreams
2010 Research Grant Donor
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- May 31, 2009
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- Lydia
"In a symbiotic union more complete than any previously found in vertebrates, the common spotted salamander lives with algae inside its cells.
Such a degree of cross-species fusion was long thought to exist only among invertebrates, whose immune systems are not primed to destroy invaders. But algae live inside the salamanders from before birth, possibly passed down from parent to offspring.
“A large number of algae cells go inside the embryo. That was something we didn’t expect,” said Ryan Kerney, a Dalhousie University biologist.
That spotted salamanders and algae live in symbiosis was first noted in the 19th century, and in the 20th century researchers worked out the relationship’s mutual benefits. Salamander eggs provide a nitrogen-rich environment for algae to grow; algae oxygenate the embryos, which develop deformities without them.
But algae were believed to float outside the embryo itself, in the egg’s nutrient broth. It fell to Kerney to notice that algae’s distinctive green glow didn’t just emanate from eggs, but from inside embryos.
Those results were announced at a conference last summer, and are expanded in greater detail Apr. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new paper adds confirmations from electron microscopy and fluorescent markers that attach to algae, flashing inside embryos and proving that Kerney’s group saw what it suspected."
For more details, see: Salamander Has Algae Living Inside Its Cells | Wired Science | Wired.com
Such a degree of cross-species fusion was long thought to exist only among invertebrates, whose immune systems are not primed to destroy invaders. But algae live inside the salamanders from before birth, possibly passed down from parent to offspring.
“A large number of algae cells go inside the embryo. That was something we didn’t expect,” said Ryan Kerney, a Dalhousie University biologist.
That spotted salamanders and algae live in symbiosis was first noted in the 19th century, and in the 20th century researchers worked out the relationship’s mutual benefits. Salamander eggs provide a nitrogen-rich environment for algae to grow; algae oxygenate the embryos, which develop deformities without them.
But algae were believed to float outside the embryo itself, in the egg’s nutrient broth. It fell to Kerney to notice that algae’s distinctive green glow didn’t just emanate from eggs, but from inside embryos.
Those results were announced at a conference last summer, and are expanded in greater detail Apr. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new paper adds confirmations from electron microscopy and fluorescent markers that attach to algae, flashing inside embryos and proving that Kerney’s group saw what it suspected."
For more details, see: Salamander Has Algae Living Inside Its Cells | Wired Science | Wired.com