Introducing Elysia chlorotica, a pilfering sea slug identified as the first animal to make chlorophyll. That’s right, the green pigment found in plants and algae and vital for photosynthesis (the process by which carbon dioxide is converted to oxygen and glucose, using energy from sunlight).

Ironically shaped like a leaf itself, this particular slug slits open the filaments of algae to suck out its contents to feed. The meal includes chloroplasts, the structures responsible for chlorophyll production and photosynthesis in both algae and plants. Upon ingestion, certain cells lining the slug’s digestive pouch manage to capture the chloroplasts, which continue to function inside the cell for up to nine months!

More startlingly, Dr. Sidney Pierce from the University of South Florida discovered that the slugs were also making chlorophyll themselves, without relying on the acquired reserves in chloroplasts. In fact, Dr. Pierce found four genes involved in chlorophyll synthesis to be incorporated into the slugs own DNA. Furthermore, the genes were also detected in unhatched larvae which have never fed on algae.

Translation? Genes from the algae’s genome were transferred into the slug’s genome and could be passed on to its offsprings.

In nature, the phenomena of transferring genes from one organism to another have only been identified between prokaryotes (like bacteria) and between prokaryotes and single-celled eukaryotes. Only in scientific research have such genetic transfers been manipulated to occur between more complex organisms (termed multicellular eukaryotes), for reasons such as gene therapy.

Could these be the world’s first “plant-imal”, an animal-plant hybrid organism?

Well, at least these suckers can be found sunbathing on the east coast of Canada, like Nova Scotia. Maybe we can use them to promote tourism.