A team of scientists has discovered a technique to keep tadpoles alive by also removing their ability to breathe, injecting algae into their bloodstream and making their heads a bright, almost phosphorescent green.
Plants, like algae, produce oxygen through photosynthesis. We animals, human and otherwise, have a limit: we usually use lungs or gills to breathe. It's the only way we have to filter oxygen from the environment.
But what if there was a way to get the oxygen we need the same way plants do, without breathing?
Algae as if it were raining
A team of scientists from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, inserted photosynthetic algae into tadpoles. He then removed the oxygen from their water. The idea was that the algae would form a mutually beneficial relationship between the frog and the microbe that would keep them both alive, even without breathing, like a little oxygen factory sitting right in the brain.
How they did it:
To see if their mini-oxygen factory would work, the scientists injected algae into tadpoles, then deprived them of oxygen until their brains shut down. Then they shined a light on the tadpoles, activating the photosynthetic algae injected into the bloodstream. The algae began to photosynthesize and produce oxygen. At that point, the tadpoles' brain cells became active again.
The team has published their work in iScience magazine.
The algae actually produced so much oxygen that they could bring nerve cells back to life. To many it sounds like science fiction, but after all, it's just the right combination of biological patterns and principles.
Hans Straka, Ludwig Maximilians Unive
Breathe without breathing
In theory, this study could lead to enormous medical benefits. I think about keeping someone alive after a stroke has blocked the flow of oxygen to the brain. But beyond the possible applications the study is stunning regardless. The possibility of breathing without… breathing is something incredible.
Scientists have long been trying to create symbiotic relationships between algae and animals. The studies, however, experiments in which whole microorganisms are introduced into cells or tissues to change their function, are “largely unregulated and under-reported”. How will they evolve in the near future?
