How would you like it if you could recharge just by sitting out in the Sun?
Now, however, researchers in Japan have successfully created photosynthetic animal cells.
The biologists took chloroplaststhe cell components responsible forphotosynthesisfrom red algae and injected them into hamster cells.
Little green powerhouses: This fluorescence image shows chloroplasts (in magenta) successfully integrated into hamster cells, alongside other highlighted features, including nuclei (light blue) and organelles (yellow-green).© R. Aoki, Y. Inui, Y. Okabe et al. 2024/ Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B
As a result, the animal cells gained the ability to photosynthesize light.
Photosynthetic electron transport is the stage of photosynthesis that produces a plant or algaes energy.
They suggest that planimals, as theyre called, could be incorporated into artificial tissue engineering.
The team plans to continue its groundbreaking research on these planimal cells.
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