Image of the Day: Green Eggs
Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) embryos are tinted green by the oxygen-producing algae (Oophila amblystomatis) that grow inside.
May 19, 2017
The Scientist Staff
Spotted salamander embryos hatching out of their egg capsules
ROGER HANGARTER
New research demonstrates that green algae not only grow inside of a spotted salamander egg, but enter cells within its body. Thus far, this is the only example of endosymbiosis in a vertebrate.
(See J.A. Burns et al., “Transcriptome analysis illuminates the nature of the intracellular interaction in a vertebrate-algal symbiosis,” eLIFE, doi:10.7554/eLife.22054, 2017.)
