If you think back to your high school biology classes, chances are you’ll have a rudimentary memory of photosynthesis.
The process by which plants absorb light from the sun and use it – along with water, and carbon dioxide – to form energy is a fascinating part of what makes plants distinct from other life forms.
However, in the future this distinction may become a little more blurred.
That’s because scientists from the University of Tokyo have found a method that allows animals to photosynthesise. With their initial experiments on hamster cells, the scientists discovered that by transplanting choloplasts (the plant cells that allow them to photosyntheise) into animals, they are able to create energy from sunlight too.
In this groundbreaking research – which was recently published in the academic journal Proceedings Of The Japanese Academy, Series B, the scientists inserted chloroplasts from algae into hamster cells that had been cultured in the lab. They then examined them through microscopes, with pulses of light administered to the hamster cells.
This confirmed that, with the help of the chloroplasts, the hamster cells were responding in just the same way as plant cells with the observed electron transport demonstrating photosynthesis in progress. The University of Tokyo’s Professor Sachihiro Matsunaga explained in a statement just how unexpected this result was:
“As far as we know, this is the first reported detection of photosynthetic electron transport in chloroplasts implanted in animal cells. We thought that the chloroplasts would be digested by the animal cells within hours after being introduced. However, what we found was that they continued to function for up to two days, and that the electron transport of photosynthetic activity occurred.”
The very fact that this photosynthetic activity continued for so long after exposure to light is a huge breakthrough. The scientists foresee this being a potential step forward in engineering artificial tissue in the lab.
The addition of chloroplasts to the cells of the tissue that researchers are trying to grow – often a slow and difficult process – may provide a much more efficient and successful way of delivering oxygen and energy to the developing cells, as Matsunaga explains:
“We believe this work will be useful for cellular-tissue engineering. Lab-grown tissues, such as artificial organs, artificial meat and skin sheets, are made of multiple layers of cells. However, there is a problem that they cannot increase in size due to hypoxia (low oxygen levels) inside the tissue, which prevents cell division. By mixing in chloroplast-implanted cells, oxygen could be supplied to the cells through photosynthesis, by light irradiation, thereby improving the conditions inside the tissue to enable growth.”
However, the fascinating implications for that research don’t stop there. As well as providing vital material for lab research and even life-changing surgery, and a more green option for meat-eaters, the research team indicated that what they have dubbed “planimal” cells could help to secure a carbon-neutral world.
The efficient growth of cells that had been transplanted with chloroplasts also seemed to allow the hamster cells to thrive from the carbon source. Matsunaga discussed the transformative benefits of helping animals to realise one of – environmentally speaking – the greatest features of plants: their ability to ingest and then digest carbon dioxide:
“We expect planimal cells to be game-changing cells, which in the future can help us achieve a ‘green transformation’ to a more carbon-neutral society. We will continue to develop innovative biotechnologies with the aim of realizing a sustainable society and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.”
It sounds like something from science fiction, but if this progressive and positive research is anything to go by, perhaps a “pluman” plant-human hybrid could be next.
Who would be-leaf it?
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.
