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Back in 2011, scientists discovered the world's only known example of a vertebrate cell hosting the cells of a completely different species in an act of symbiosis between a salamander and a species of algae.
While similar relationships can be found in animals without a backbone, such as coral and molluscs, this unusual discovery posed a bunch of questions about how the partnership is even possible in a vertebrate, and who it's benefiting. Now, thanks to a new study, we're starting to get some answers - and it's not pretty.
Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania analysed the genes of a green alga and a species of spotted salamander called Ambystoma maculatum, with which it forms a rather intimate relationship.
The alga's scientific name, Oophila amblystomatis, is the perfect introduction to this unicellular life form, translating roughly as "Ambystoma egg lover."
For over a century, biologists have marvelled at how the alga slips inside the envelope surrounding the salamander's eggs and cosies up to them.
On the surface, it looks like a textbook example of a type of symbiosis called mutualism, it's a win-win for both parties – the algae get to feed off the carbon and nitrogen compounds seeping from the eggs as waste, while the growing salamander gets a steady supply of oxygen released by their photosynthesising neighbour.
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While similar relationships can be found in animals without a backbone, such as coral and molluscs, this unusual discovery posed a bunch of questions about how the partnership is even possible in a vertebrate, and who it's benefiting. Now, thanks to a new study, we're starting to get some answers - and it's not pretty.
Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania analysed the genes of a green alga and a species of spotted salamander called Ambystoma maculatum, with which it forms a rather intimate relationship.
The alga's scientific name, Oophila amblystomatis, is the perfect introduction to this unicellular life form, translating roughly as "Ambystoma egg lover."
For over a century, biologists have marvelled at how the alga slips inside the envelope surrounding the salamander's eggs and cosies up to them.
On the surface, it looks like a textbook example of a type of symbiosis called mutualism, it's a win-win for both parties – the algae get to feed off the carbon and nitrogen compounds seeping from the eggs as waste, while the growing salamander gets a steady supply of oxygen released by their photosynthesising neighbour.
We Have Weird New Details on The Strangest Symbiotic Relationship Ever Found
Back in 2011, scientists discovered the world's only known example of a vertebrate cell hosting the cells of a completely different species in an act of symbiosis between a salamander and a species of algae.
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