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Beautiful but destructive
January 28, 2009A Flamingo Tongue snail crawls over soft corals in the Caribbean. In an “arms race” over evolutionary time, the corals developed toxins that deter predators, but the snail evolved a group of genes and proteins called a “defensome” that detoxify coral compounds and allow it to eat the corals. This work, by student Kristen Whalen in biologist Mark Hahn‘s lab is included in a recent issue of Oceanus magazine featuring MIT/WHOI Joint Program students.
(Photo by Kristen Whalen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
TOPICS: Corals
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