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Some animals like these sacoglossan slugs, also known as sap-sucking sea slugs, can autotomize, that is, when an animal voluntarily loses part of the body, said the author of the l study Sayaka Mitoh, doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Nara Women’s University in Japan. .
She said the research team couldn’t determine why slugs lose vital body parts, but some animals do so to eliminate internal parasites that inhibit their reproduction, Mitoh said.
Five of the 15 young Elysia reared in the laboratory cf. marginata slugs began to self-decapitate approximately 226 to 336 days after hatching. They started feeding on algae within hours of losing body parts and began to regenerate their hearts within seven days. After 20 days, the slugs had regenerated their whole body.
Three of the 82 slugs Elysia atroviridis beheaded their bodies on the neck. Among these slugs, two of them regenerated their bodies in a week.
Not all slugs have been so lucky.
Older slugs – the Elysia cf. marginata slugs that hatched 480-520 days before the self-decapitation – did not feed and died within 10 days.
It may seem like a “silly” choice for the older slugs to separate their heads from the body if they don’t survive, Mitoh said, but the “old ones will die soon anyway and there may be a chance to survive and die. body free from parasites. “
Mitoh doesn’t know how slugs can live without some of their vital organs, “but they can live without a heart probably because their heads are small” and can take in oxygen from the surface of their body.
One of the slugs in the experiment was able to complete the regeneration process twice, but Mitoh said she was also unsure how the slug could do it.
The results of the study were intriguing, said Ángel Valdés, professor and director of the department of biological sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who was not involved in the research.
“Other sacoglossal sea slugs can regenerate appendages or other parts of the body, but this is an extreme case,” Valdés said.
The sea slugs he has studied in the past also autotomize parts of their bodies, but rarely vital organs.
There is a need to learn more about this phenomenon, both about the species in the experiment and about other animals, Mitoh said.
“We want to study whether other sacoglossal species have this ability to study the evolutionary pattern and process of such extreme autotomy and regeneration,” she said.
In addition to the evolution, Valdés also wants to go to the field to see if he can repeat the results of the experiment.
“I am also curious about the underlying molecular and physiological mechanisms that allow the body to regenerate,” said Valdés.
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