Plants’ Photosynthetic Machinery Functions inside Hamster Cells
Transplanted chloroplasts endured two days inside animal cells—and got to work
Researchers transplanted chloroplasts from algae into Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus) cells.
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More than a billion years ago a hungry cell devoured a tiny blue-green algae. But instead of the former simply digesting the latter, the duo struck a remarkable evolutionary deal. Now scientists are trying to engineer that miracle in a laboratory.
In a recent experiment reported in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, researchers transplanted that algae’s photosynthesizing descendants, plant organelles called chloroplasts, into hamster cells—where they converted light into energy, staying active for at least two days.
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Scientists had previously tried transferring plant chloroplasts into fungi cells, but the cells’ cleanup squad destroyed foreign organelles within hours. For their attempt, Matsunaga’s group harvested extra-hardy chloroplasts from a red algae that thrives in acidic volcanic hot springs and housed them in lab-cultured hamster ovary cells.
A fluorescence image shows chloroplasts (magenta) successfully incorporated into the hamster cells, with other features of the animal cells also highlighted: nuclei are in light blue, and organelles are in yellow-green.
The team isolated the chloroplasts from algal cells using a centrifuge and gentle stirring. Instead of then piercing the host cells’ membranes, as in earlier work, the researchers adjusted the culture medium’s composition so it coaxed the animal cells into engulfing the chloroplasts like amoebas do, Matsunaga says, “mistaking them for nutrients.”
These types of transplants could someday help scientists engineer living materials, Boeke says, such as photosynthesizing fungi or bacteria that might be used on rooftops to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or lab organoids that can grow faster using a chloroplast’s extra oxygen. Solar-powered humans, of course, remain pure fantasy, Matsunaga says: “They would need a tennis court’s worth of surface area covered with chloroplasts.”
Source: www.scientificamerican.com