Created 26/08/2022 Updated 21/03/2023
28 Jul
2022

The crucial role of insects in the pollination of flowering plants is well known, but algal fertilization assisted by marine animals was hitherto deemed non-existent. A team led by a CNRS researcher from the Franco-Chilean Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of Algae research unit at Roscoff Marine Station (CNRS / Sorbonne University / Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile / Universidad Austral de Chile) has discovered that small crustaceans known as idoteas contribute to the reproductive cycle of the red alga Gracilaria gracilis. The scientists’ findings are published in Science (29 July 2022). They suggest that animal-mediated fertilization is much older than once thought.

> Read the press release

Bibliographie

Pollinators of the sea: a discovery of animal mediated fertilization in seaweed. E. Lavaut, M-L. Guillemin, S. Colin, A. Faure, J. Coudret, C. Destombe, M. Valero. Science, le 29 juillet 2022.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo6661