Until now, fools have inhabited our shores in relative indifference. These tiny red crustaceans, from the isopods family, which are less than 2 centimeters long, have only attracted the interest of a few marine biologists around the planet. That time is over. Publication, Thursday 26 July, of an article by the French team, in review Science, promised to change its category and give it the evocative nickname “sea bee”. Researchers at the Roscoff biology station, linked to Chilean and German laboratories, have just shown that crustaceans ensure gracilaire pollination by transporting male gametes from these red algae to female gametes. If this method of reproduction was common in flowering plants, it still applies today unknown among algae.
The research coordinator, Myriam Valero, has had intuition for a long time. It has been almost thirty years since the marine biologist study, from every angle – from cartography to genetic analysis – this widespread red spaghetti, attached to the rock with binding tape. With a question “repeatedly” : “How do male and female gametes touch? » Because, behind the identical appearance, the gracilar is distinguished between male and female individuals. If the former release their gametes to reproduce, the latter jealously guard theirs. An additional obstacle, red algae spermatia lacks cilia to move. “The marine biology dogma wants fertilization to occur solely through the movement of water.Myriam Valero explained. I have doubts. We know that gracilaires are covered with idiots and the latter pass from one algae to another. There is no reason for them not to play a role. »
This study made it possible to reveal a mode of operation that is ultimately very close to bees
As part of her thesis, her student Emma Lavaut undertook to demonstrate this. First, by comparing in the laboratory the reproductive success of mixed populations of gracilaire with or without crustaceans. The results are spectacular with up to twenty times more fertilization in the presence of the pagans. “But maybe they just moved the water?” », objected the young researcher, following scientific reasoning. The experiment was therefore repeated, in two phases: idiotées placed between the male algae, then dipped back into the middle of the female algae. reproductive success not rejected. “And if the researcher who, through his manipulation, transports the spermatia? », continued the doctoral student. The same movements are performed, but without crustaceans. And the conception turns out “ignored”.
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