How Algae Do Fine When Tossed at Sea | The Institute for Creation Research

How Algae Do Fine When Tossed at Sea
How would you do if someone spun you around every few seconds all day long? Marine algae repeatedly get tossed about in coastal surf, and they cope quite well. Researchers want to find out how. The latest set of experiments has revealed built-in machinery that helps these single-celled creatures thrive amid the turbulence. Peering into the ways those cellular systems work invokes big questions about how those systems got there in the first place.

An international research team published their results of experiments on Heterosigmaakashiwo, known for its fish-killing algal blooms in coastal waters worldwide, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).1 They already knew that once a peaceful population gets stirred enough, it splits into two groups. About half the cells keep swimming upward while the other half heads down. So these researchers wanted to find out how the algae make this switch.

The team found that once a single cell turns around ten times, its little innards start to change. How do such small creatures even know they’re getting spun, let alone that they’re tumbling so much they need to retool their whole life strategy? In the wild, descending cells can reach sea floor muds and enter a vegetative state. With enough heat and light, they reanimate and swim toward the surface again.

The retooling happens quickly through an integrated array of inputs and outputs. A prior research group based in Korea wrote in 2002, “Most likely, the underlying signal transduction circuitry that effects a given survival response is composed of a networked system that relays information from multiple input cues.”2 What are these inputs?

Each of these algal cells has sensors that detect gravity so they know which way is down. Their light intensity meters inform their logic centers when to switch back to an upward-migrating mode.1 And yes, these bacteria come with onboard thermometers. They have nitrogen, phosphorus, and salt detectors. But what would these mobile microscopic laboratories do with all these data if they didn’t also have pre-loaded response plans?

The 2002 study authors wrote, “The organism must perceive selected environmental cues and transduce those signals into metabolic programs that determine which life history phase will optimize survival.”2 Algae programs include shifting from flat to pear-shaped bodies. They can grow into large or small forms. They leverage the fact that oil floats on water to manage oil content and control buoyancy. And if they tumble too much or get hit with too much light, they soon start swimming down.

Anupan Sengupta’s biophysics laboratory at the University of Luxembourg helped lead the PNAS author group in its quest for answers to questions of how outside factors like light and turbulence translate to specific internal changes in these algae. They found that too many reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the cell triggered the cells’ responses. ROS are chemicals that damage proteins and DNA. Cells generally come equipped to handle these otherwise lethal poisons. When that equipment inside H. akashiwo can’t catch up with ROS production, sensors detect the rogue ROS. Once levels reach a threshold, cells switch tactics and swim down.

All that tumbling squeezes and stresses the cells, generating ROS. Too much light has the same effect. The PNAS team measured the ROS threshold that causes algae to switch modes of life. When ROS levels reach 2.3 times the levels in standard upward migrating algae, about half the cells start shutting down and swimming down.1 Who set this and other internal thresholds?

In an online video explaining his results, Dr. Gupta said, “Modification of one or a combination of light levels, nutrient availability, or flow conditions—the key determinants of microbial health—have revealed that microbes have exquisite mechanisms to adapt to changes in their natural settings, all the while maintaining their basic fitness to execute their evolutionary function of environmental safekeeping.”3

Setting aside vacuous assertions about evolution, we can focus on the bigger question: Where did those “exquisite mechanisms” come from? What scientist has observed natural processes generate any mechanism from scratch, let alone exquisite ones—even miniaturized exquisite ones? Rather, exquisite mechanisms always come from exquisite planning. And this requires a mind that nature does not possess.

Stage image credit: Anette Engesmo et al., Phycologia. Copyright © 2016. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.

References
1. Carrara, R. et al. 2021. Bistability in oxidative stress response determines the migration behavior of phytoplankton in turbulence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (5): e2005944118.
2. Han, M-S., Y-P Kim, and R.A. Cattolico. 2002. Heterosigmaakashiow (Raphidophyceae) Resting Cell Formation in Batch Culture: Strain Identity Versus Physiological Response. Journal of Phycology. 38: 304-317.
3. Microbes are crucial in tackling the climate crisis | Anupam Sengupta | TEDxUniversityofLuxembourg. Posted on youtube.com November 18, 2020, accessed February 3, 2021.

*Dr. Brian Thomas is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in paleobiochemistry from the University of Liverpool.
The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Humanity's Demise at the Hands of Genetic Entropy | The Creation...
Welcome to the fourth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
''Inside-Out'' Fossil is Amazingly Preserved
It is widely known that vast numbers of fossils—vertebrate and invertebrate—have been discovered incredibly well-preserved.1,2...

NEWS
The Resurrection and the Origin of Life
At Easter time we focus on the cardinal Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Christianity is a sham. The truth that Jesus...

NEWS
Is an Ancient Extinct Tree-Dweller Our Relative?
Human evolution has always been hazy with seemingly as many attempted explanations for how we evolved from animals as there are paleoanthropologists. Evolutionists...

NEWS
The Return of the Dire Wolf?
There’s been much recent excitement about the birth of three dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) puppies by a Dallas-based biotech company: Colossal Bioscience....

CREATION PODCAST
Cracks in the Layers: Lake Suigetsu and the Old Earth Illusion...
Welcome to the third episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
Fish Fossil Vomit
A rather unsavory news story recently appeared regarding fossilized vomit. Although it’s hardly dinner table conversation, it nonetheless supports...

NEWS
Dino Footprints Down Under
Dinosaur trackways1 are once again making the news. Australia is the setting of a remarkable series of dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithischian...

NEWS
April 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things...

NEWS
Human Evolution and the Inner Ear
The vain attempt by evolutionists to make an evolutionary connection between people and ape-like ancestors continues. This time, it is in regard to...