Japan Team World's 1st to Create Hybrid Plant-Animal Cells

Tokyo, Nov. 13 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese team said that it has become the first in the world to create hybrid plant-animal cells, dubbed "planimal" cells, by fusing a unicellular alga called Cyanidioschyzon merolae into cultured animal cells.

According to the team from the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Science Tokyo, Kindai University and others, all of C. merolae's DNA was integrated into the animal cells' chromosomes.

But the hybrid cells were, in terms of function, animal cells because C. merolae's DNA was suppressed and chloroplasts, which conduct photosynthesis, were degraded during fusion.

"We hope to introduce chloroplasts and activate C. merolae genes to generate oxygen through photosynthesis," said Sachihiro Matsunaga, professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.

The team's findings were published in the international journal Nature Communications.

Sachihiro Matsunaga, professor at the University of Tokyo, explains the creation of "planimal" hybrid plant-animal cells by fusing a primitive alga into cultured animal cells, at the science ministry in Tokyo on Oct. 27.