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- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 15 years ago by moish01.
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April 29, 2009 4:35 pm at 4:35 pm #589720feivelParticipant
We all learned that plants get their energy from the sun through photosynthesis, whereas animals have to eat plants or other animals to get their energy.
Right? Well, it appears a sea slug named Elysia chlorotica, living in the western Atlantic Ocean, hasn’t been to biology class.
This colorful green slug looks like a fancy leaf, and unlike other sea slugs, it uses the sun for energy, just like a plant. How does it do this? Elysia is a thief, and its thievery is known as kleptoplasty. When it’s young, it eats algae which are loaded with chloroplasts. These chloroplasts, which perform photosynthesis, are removed intact from within the algae. The algae are digested but their chloroplasts are not! The chloroplasts are then absorbed by the slug’s gut cells and distributed to it’s surface. From then on, the slug is solar powered and can make its own energy.
This, and that’s not all. Chloroplasts should not be able to work once they are removed from algal cells because those cells contain proteins that control their operation. But they do work inside the slug. Scientists have discovered that Elysia not only steals chloroplasts, it has the genes to control their functions.
April 29, 2009 6:07 pm at 6:07 pm #643420feivelParticipantcb
you doubt moish!?
April 29, 2009 7:25 pm at 7:25 pm #643421moish01Member…coming right up…
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s-vi googled it to get a picture and i saw two different looking ones. this is the less common looking one, but it’s the best i can do.
plus it’s not green – but i wasn’t in the mood to email the editor and ask him to modify the system just for a stupid picture…
April 29, 2009 7:38 pm at 7:38 pm #643422areivimzehlazehParticipantway to go moish! feivel really knows his stuff/people 😉
April 29, 2009 7:42 pm at 7:42 pm #643423moish01Memberwow not sure why it’s a little messed up… but since when is a slug perfect-looking anyway?
April 29, 2009 8:11 pm at 8:11 pm #643424charlie brownMemberwhen I said that moish won’t be able to make a pic, I was referring to what he said – that ywn doesn’t support green text. I knew he’s be able to make a B&W pic, never doubted that for a second, and of course he came thru. Nice job, moish!
April 29, 2009 8:16 pm at 8:16 pm #643425moish01Memberfeivel, next time do a blue creature 😉
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