Clearly that sea crustaceans also help algae reproductive activities so that insects mediate pollen
Insects such as bees and butterflies play a role in pollinating plants, and in recent years there is concern that the decline in bees will affect plant pollination. A new study reveals that living organisms support the reproductive activity of plants is not limited to land, but that crustaceans that live in the sea help algae reproductive activity.
Pollinators of the sea: A discovery of animal-mediated fertilization in seaweed
Crustaceans help to fertilize seaweeds, study finds
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-crustaceans-fertilize-seaweeds.html
Crustaceans Discovered 'Pollinating' Seaweeds in Scientific First
https://www.sciencealert.com/crustaceans-found-pollinating-seaweeds-in-an-ocean-first
It has been known that pollinators such as insects play an important role in terrestrial plants, but until now it was thought that marine animals did not support the fertilization of algae in the sea. Therefore, pollination by animals was thought to have occurred around the time of the Mesozoic Era , even 252 million years ago, after plants advanced to the ground.
However, new research conducted by international research teams in France and Chile has discovered that marine animals mediate fertilization of algae. The research team focused on the algae ' Gracilaria gracilis ', which is a type of red algae and belongs to the Gracilaceae family , and a small crustacean called Idotea balthica.
Common seaweed is fertilized by male gametes (sperm) with flagella swimming in the sea and reaching female gametes (eggs). However, since red algae lack the flagella necessary for swimming, sperm reach eggs by drifting on ocean currents.
In an experiment, the research team confirmed that sperm adhered to the body of Idotea, which was eating food near the male Gracilaria gracilis, and transferred the sperm to the female female gamete. Below is a video of a tank in which a male Gracilaria gracilis (upper left) and a female Gracilaria gracilis (upper right) are actually installed, and multiple idotea are swimming. Idotea actively swims around male and female Gracilaria gracilis, and sperm covered with mucus adheres to this body.
Crustaceans help to fertilize seaweeds, study finds - YouTube
According to the research team, the presence of idotea increased the fertilization success rate of Gracilaria gracilis by as much as 20 times. It is the first time that we have shown that we can improve to
Idotea not only mediates sperm, but it also seems to harbor Gracilaria gracilis and feed on surface-dwelling microbes, maintaining a symbiotic relationship that benefits both. It seems that there is
The image below is a fluorescence-colored sperm of Gracilaria gracilis attached to the body of Idotea.
The results of the study led Jeff Ollerton and Zong-Xin Ren of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences to extend the concept and history of animal-mediated pollination from land plants to marine algae. It indicates that this type of interaction may have existed much earlier than previously thought . However, red algae such as Gracilaria gracilis existed about 650 million years ago, while crustaceans such as idotea are said to have appeared about 300 million years ago. It is a mystery as to how they were bred.
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