Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog Obam Here. Slugs are cool, really. These diverse
Speaker 1: members of the class gastropoduct can boast all kinds of
Speaker 1: superpowers depending on their species, from safely dropping their tails
Speaker 1: when attacked to creating slimes strong enough to dangle from.
Speaker 1: But a green sea slug that floats around in the
Speaker 1: intertidal zone along the northeast coast of America has wowed
Speaker 1: scientists with this ability. It can suck out an algae's
Speaker 1: parts that generate energy from sunlight and incorporate those parts
Speaker 1: into its own biology. In doing so, it becomes an
Speaker 1: animal with the photosynthetic ability of a plant. But we
Speaker 1: spoke with Debussies Bacharia, a biochemist and microbiologist at Rutgers University,
Speaker 1: New Brunswick and senior author of a paper appearing in
Speaker 1: Molecular Biology and Evolution about the sea slug. These slugs
Speaker 1: look like wide blaant green leaves with snail like heads.
Speaker 1: They're found in the shallow inlets and salt marshes along
Speaker 1: the Atlantic coast of North America from Florida to Nova Scotia,
Speaker 1: and they have a life span of eight to ten months.
Speaker 1: But Charia said this slug is really unique. It steals
Speaker 1: the algae's plastids and then directs them without the help
Speaker 1: of the algile nucleus. Other animals, including some corals and salamanders,
Speaker 1: are known to incorporate algae to benefit from the algae's
Speaker 1: ability to photosynthesize. What makes this slug unique is it
Speaker 1: takes only the plastids or the very organelles that contain
Speaker 1: chlorophyll and performed photosynthesis. The slug then uses its own
Speaker 1: genome to keep the plastids operating within its own body
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of its life. Figuring out how the
Speaker 1: slug keeps these algae made solar panels functioning could lead
Speaker 1: to innovations and developing green machines that need only sunlight
Speaker 1: to generate energy, or bioproducts that could be used as biodiesel.
Speaker 1: As a juvenile, one of these slugs will suck in
Speaker 1: a particular species of brown algae. The structure of this
Speaker 1: brown algae lends itself to efficient sucking since it has
Speaker 1: no walls between the cells in its body. The slug
Speaker 1: then digests the algae's nuclei, but stows the algae's plastids
Speaker 1: in the lining of its gut. But once the slug
Speaker 1: has thus ingested the algae's solar panels, it survives off
Speaker 1: a photosynthesis for the remaining six to eight months of
Speaker 1: its life. But a Charia said, the only reason the
Speaker 1: plastid stop working is the c slug completes its life
Speaker 1: cycle and dies. That suggests that the plastids could be
Speaker 1: kept functioning for a long time. If this slug's ability
Speaker 1: could be engineered, you could build a green machine that
Speaker 1: runs indefinitely. Today's episode was written by Amanda Onion and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler clayg. Brain Stuff is production of I
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