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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Solar-powered slugs have a bright reproductive future

Gastropods that use photosynthetic apparatus stolen from algae increase their egg output.
Sea slug Elysia timida under water.

The sea slug Elysia timida exploits photosynthetic organelles from its alga-rich diet to make nutrients for reproduction. Credit: Prilfish via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Some sea slugs build their eggs with the help of actively photosynthesizing organelles taken up from seaweed1.

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Nature 598, 11 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02631-2

References

  1. Cartaxana, P. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1779 (2021).

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