Nature has produced some very odd match . One of the most beautiful and bizarre may be the duad of green algae and child salamanders . It ’s a relationship that has fascinated scientists for more than a century . Now a new theme in the journaleLifesheds a petty light on their weird and wonderful dynamic .
Mutually beneficial relationship between metal money are a dime bag a dozen , lead author John Burns of the American Museum of Natural History said in astatement , “ but the relationship between this particular alga and salamander is very strange . ”
The algaOophila amblystomatisand its pal , the patched salamander , do n’t just hang up out in a support room somewhere . The beautiful , grassy gullible alga introduce the salamander’sjelly - like eggs — and then enters the cells of the salamander itself .
The in - egg cohabitation seems to profit both political party . The alga makes oxygen for the salamander , and the salamander make nitrogen for the alga through its waste .
It ’s a “ unknown organization , ” said atomic number 27 - author Ryan Kerney of Gettysburg College . But how does it function ?
To find out , Kerney , Burns , and their colleagues analyzed both species ’ cells at the molecular level . They looked at the RNA of alga that populate with and privileged salamanders ; algae that did n’t ; stove poker that live with algae ; and salamander that did n’t .
They found that , as with any acute relationship , being together changed things for both partner . For the alga , the alteration were n’t all confident : those living inside salamander showed sign of stress and difficulty adapting . This is not a huge surprise ; green algae ordinarily get their energy from the Sun . Moving inside an animal ’s sunless body would be a fairly crowing shock .
The same was not dependable for the fire hook . The results showed that their body changed to become more hospitable for the alga by conquer their immune scheme , which evoke that they may have something to hit by letting the algae in .
Learning more about these two weirdos could teach us more about the mode the rest of the natural world works .
“ These two basically different electric cell are shift each other dramatically , ” co - writer Eunsoo Kim of AMNH said . “ This might be relevant for other symbiotic systems , including human and epenthetic microbe relationship . ”
