Invasion of the Bodysnatchers … for real
In an act straight out of “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers,” a marine microbe has been caught red-handed merging with green algae on a Japanese beach.
By engulfing a single cell of algae, the single-celled Hatena microbe is able to remake itself from a sleek, colorless predator into a fat, verdant sunbather.
The strange switcheroo resembles a pivotal evolutionary step in which early, single-celled organisms took in and eventually formed permanent, long-term relationships with what are today the green, solar-energy-capturing chloroplasts in modern plant cells.