Successful Transplantation of Photosynthetically Active Chloroplasts into Animal Cells

October 31, 2024

A Breakthrough Towards Creating Photosynthetic Animal Cells

A collaborative research group from the University of Tokyo, the RIKEN CSRS, Tokyo University of Science, and Waseda University successfully transplanted chloroplasts from algae into animal cultured cells, and detected photosynthesis within the animal cells. The chloroplasts maintained photosynthetic activity for at least two days inside the cells. It has been challenging to transplant chloroplasts into animal cells because animal cells recognize chloroplasts as foreign bodies and digest them.

The origin of chloroplasts dates back 1.2 to 1.6 billion years, when photosynthetic bacteria formed a symbiotic relationship with animal cells, leading to the emergence of algae and the birth of chloroplasts as their cellular organelles. In this study, the research group isolated photosynthetically active chloroplasts from primitive algae called Cyanidioschyzon and developed a method to introduce them into animal cultured cells. Generally, physical methods like creating pores in the cell membrane were used, but the research group succeeded by enhancing the phagocytic activity of animal cells to naturally incorporate chloroplasts. This newly developed chloroplast transplantation method serves as a technological foundation for creating "planimal cells" (animal cells with plant functions), which is expected to contribute to green transformation.

Original article

Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, Physical and Biological Sciences
doi: 10.2183/pjab.100.035

R. Aoki, Y. Inui, Y. Okabe, M. Sato, N. Takeda-Kamiya, K. Toyooka, K. Sawada, H. Mortita, B. Genot, S. Maruyama, T. Tomo, K. Sonoike,S. Matsunaga,

"Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chloroplasts in cultured mammalian cells towards photosynthesis in animals".

Contact

Kiminori Toyooka
Senior Technical Scientist
Mass Spectrometry and Microscopy Unit