Symbiotic Sea Slugs: meeting Saturday the 19th

[Avery louie]

Saturday, May 19, 12 oclock noon at Sprout! (339r summer street, Somerville MA)

Did you know that there is a species of photosynthetic (as in how plants make energy from sunlight) sea slug that lives off the coast of our own, beloved state?  Well you do now.

They are cute, too!



We plan on growing some of these guys, and the algae that they eat to maintain their photosynthetic super powers and green coloration at BOSSLAB/Sprout!  You should join us this saturday, may 19 at 12 noon to learn how they are kept, and how we plan to go about getting them!

--Avery

[Matthias Bock]

Yes, interesting partnership!

Hm, so the sea slug receives energy from the algae
but what do the algae get in return ?

- Matthias

Am Freitag, den 11.05.2012, 18:13 -0400 schrieb Avery louie:
> Saturday, May 19, 12 oclock noon at Sprout! (339r summer street,
> Somerville MA)
>
> Did you know that there is a species of photosynthetic (as in how
> plants make energy from sunlight) sea slug that lives off the coast of
> our own, beloved state? Well you do now.
>
> They are cute, too!
>

[ruphos]

On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Matthias Bock <matthi...@hu-berlin.de> wrote:

Yes, interesting partnership!

Hm, so the sea slug receives energy from the algae
but what do the algae get in return ?

Digested, I would imagine.

 

--
"And if ye cannot be saints of knowledge, then be at least its warriors."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

[John Griessen]

On 05/11/2012 05:30 PM, Matthias Bock wrote:
> what do the algae get in return ?

Same thing all the zillions of seeds and spores and us,
a brief time to live.

[Avery louie]

Ah.  The algae gets...eaten.

lots of info here.

the short version is that at birth, the slugs eat some of this aglae and suck out the soft center out of the filamentous algae, and somehow separate the chloroplasts from the rest of the cell.  Then they integrate the chloroplasts into their gut lining and the chloroplasts do their thing and make food.

Normally, the chloroplasts would die shortly thereafter because the chloroplasts lack the proteins needed for complete chloroplast upkeep, but the slugs have somehow acquired the genes needed to make those proteins, so they an actually maintain the chloroplasts.

--A

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[Matthias Bock]

I see. Wonders me a bit. I could imagine,
if it would only be disadvantegous for the algae,
they would over the generations try to
poison the slug in order to avoid being eaten.
Therefore I would expect some kind of "payment".
Even if it's "only" the spread of the for itself
immobile algae across some distances.
But if they are only digested, it's
not a symbiosis (in the sense of mutualism).

- Matthias

[Cathal Garvey]

Evolution is constantly in motion. If they have a purely predator/prey relationship, the algae may well have evolved many defenses over the ages, only for the slug to adapt to them again.

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[Mega]

Amazing!!!


Cool stuff, unfortunately these animals are nowhere near me...



I imagine there are many many algae and thus the few ones eaten by slugs is not even an evolutionary factor.


Maybe someday they even keep the chloroplasts. That would be impressing. So they would be born and don't have to eat the algae.

[John Griessen]

On 05/12/2012 03:28 AM, Cathal Garvey wrote:
> Evolution is constantly in motion. If they have a purely predator/prey relationship,
the algae may well have evolved many defenses over the ages, only for the slug to
adapt to them again.

I think little of the huge numbers of dying microbes, but a little furry animal
triggers all kinds of pondering the universe. We have big post oak trees that cover a
24 meter circle and top out at 15 meters with many squirrels, so I have rescued
babies that were orphaned, seen particular squirrels grabbed by a hawk and ripped open
and carried off, and one that was confusedly trying to do his usual tree climbing
thing as I approached only he had lost use of his front paws. We didn't see him anymore
after 3 hours of that condition. There is lots of animal death in an urban setting and
much more in true wilds that might not have a big impact on evolution -- it just happens.

All the time.

[Matthias Bock]

A predator/prey relationship is costly for both sides.
Therefore evolution will favor individuals,
successfully estabilishing a mutualistic trade agreement
of which both sides gain maximum profit.
It is difficult though and takes some generations ...

[Avery louie]

The interesting thing here is it is not an algae-slug symbiosis, it is an algae-chloroplast symbiosis.

--Avery

[Avery louie]

I went later in the day.  No slugs, but I did see:

Crabs
Horseshoe crabs
Jellyfish
Big 'ol bristle worms

Pretty cool... Pix/videos to be posted!

A

On May 20, 2012 5:54 PM, "Ian Hawkins" <ianfh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sunday, May 27, 2012 at 9:30 AM we will met at the at Suffolk Downs T stop (Blue Line) to collect some eastern emerald elysia sea slugs (Elysia chlorotica). Meet by the ticket kiosks.

We'll be hunting the little critters in the Bell Island Marsh:
http://www.bostonharborwalk.com/placestogo/location.php?nid=4&sid=22

Here are what the slugs look like:
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/123/1/29/F1.large.jpg

We'll also pick up some of their food: a string-like green algae (Vaucheria litorea).

After that, we'll take them to BOSSLab and set them up in a tank with instant ocean and sunlight.

Bring shoes/boots you can get deeply muddy.

Thanks,

Ian Hawkins

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