Life
Salamander's algal partners, tool-using capuchins and more in this week's news
By Science News
Embryos (and algae) on board
Spotted salamander embryos may rank as the first known vertebrates with full-fledged algal partners living inside their cells. Biologists had known that the embryos link up in some mutually beneficial way with an Oophilia algal species. Embryos develop more quickly and the algae grow better when the species entangle. Now, imaging and genetic analysis have detected algae hitchhiking in salamander egg capsules and actually living inside animal cells when the embryo starts developing, an international research team reports online April 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. —Susan Milius
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