Algae May Be Secret to This Slug's Appetite for Light, Self-Photosynthesis

A slug that eats algae harvests a gene from the latter to survive for nine months on photosynthesis.

According to Discovery News, the Emerald Sea Slug feeds on algae Vaucheria litore and harvests chloroplasts for photosynthesis. While the slug's ability was known to scientists, a team of researchers have been puzzling over how photosynthesis helps the slug sustain for nine months, much longer than the duration of sustenance for the algae. The team now has zeroed in on the gene responsible.

What researchers found shocked them. The gene was passed on to the slug from the algae. What was more surprising for the researchers, subsequent generation of slugs also had the gene. The gene repairs damaged chloroplasts to keep them working for photosynthesis, according to Smithsonian.

"There is no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal cell. 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," said study's co-author Sidney K. Pierce in a statement.

"When a successful transfer of genes between species occurs, evolution can basically happen from one generation to the next," Pierce added.