Navigating between the best of two worlds, this gene-stealing sea slug preserves the best part of being an animal while enjoying the virtues of being a plant. At first glance, the green sea slug looks like a fantastic fairy tale creature. However, nature’s creativity is often beyond fiction, and the gene-stealing sea slug is a true example of this.
Stealing enough genes from plants, this animal is the first known to produce chlorophyll like a plant. This means that it can feed on sunlight, just like plants. The sea slug has long been recognized as a unique creature. It can carry out photosynthesis and even acquire organelles from the plants it eats. It is the first hybrid animal to be known by humanity.
In fact, a study found out that this slug is capable of acquiring and incorporating some of the genes of the plants it eats into its own DNA. Can you imagine becoming what you eat? Having the power to transform genes is an act that has cost human being a lot, but nature has shown to have it very well incorporated in this species.
The sea slug is capable of mutating during life
Evolving, mutating, or transforming genetic chains are not actions that we can do in the blink of an eye. Various species take centuries to transform organisms and improve them for survival. However, in the case of the gene-stealing sea slug, actually named Elysia Chlorotica, hybridity is a possible and visible act that happens in a short period of time.
Since 1970, it was discovered that the sea slug was capable of acquiring organelles from plants that contain the green pigment chlorophyll. That is, it consumes the genes of those beings that convert light into energy. And, almost like an act of magic, it becomes a creditor of that ability.
However, until now, no one knows for sure how these animals can maintain the stolen genes for a long period. Scientists acknowledge that the secret could lie in the genes that code for chloroplast proteins. Those genes that are found in the slug and help keep the stolen genes working.
If anything, if the sea slug really is a small animal that steals genes and keeps them going, then, so far, this would be the only example of functional gene transfer. It would become an exceptional example of rapid evolution in the natural world.
Text and photos courtesy of Ecoosfera
Translated by Gaby Flores
