Are animals capable of photosynthesis, as plants

Some species of sea slugs steal chloroplasts in algae and begin to photosynthesize their own. This is very strange behavior as chloroplasts (photosynthetic elements of cells) require continuous support "molecular machinery", which is usually only available in algae and terrestrial plants. Somehow slugs learned to keep his job in alien organisms.

"It should not work at all, but it works," - says Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida, who has spent the last four years to look for genes that may explain how these chloroplasts manage work. In the cells of living creature species Elysia chlorotica he found about 50 genes involved in photosynthesis.

How slugs managed to borrow genes from algae? "If I knew that, I would have understood how the gene therapy, and would already be a millionaire in retirement," - said Pierce. Gene therapy involves the introduction of genes in human DNA and has the potential to treat many diseases from cancer to blindness. However, gene therapy is still very underdeveloped, partly because introduce foreign DNA into the human genome and make it work as it should, it is difficult.

via factroom.ru