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clrR"></div><div class="mR165"><div><div class="textMedBlackBold">By Charles
Q. Choi</div><img
src="
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border="0" height="20" width="140" vspace="0" hspace="0"><div
class="textTimestamp"><span id="udtD">updated <span class="time">12:54 p.m.
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class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Among the greatest mysteries
in zoology for more than a century have been vaguely shrimp-like creatures
known as y-larvae. </p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span
id="byLine"></span>Although these microscopic beasts are clearly young
crustaceans, no one knew what the adult forms looked like. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Now researchers may have
solved this puzzle by dosing the y-larvae with a hormone that forced them to
go through a growth spurt. </p><div class="aC" id="AdShowcase_F1"><div
class="textSmallGrey w320"><a href="#storyContinued">Story continues below
↓</a><hr noshade size="1">advertisement<div style="padding:0 10 10
10;"><script
type="text/javascript">dap('&PG=NBCSAT&AP=1089','300','250');</script></div><hr
noshade size="1"></div></div><a name="storyContinued"
id="AdShowcase_F2"></a><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The
result  simple, pulsing, slug-like masses of cells that were
"mind-blowing" to the scientists. These surprisingly simple creatures  far
simpler than their larval stage  may be parasites found worldwide. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Y-larvae, or facetotectans,
were first discovered in 1899. There were once x-larvae as well, the 'x' and
'y' both denoting something mysterious. Later on, the adult form of the
x-larvae were found, but bafflingly, even after intense searches, no one knew
what y-larvae grew up to be, so they kept their name. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>These critters are just a few
hundred microns large, or roughly the size of the period at the end of this
sentence. They occur with dizzying diversity in coral reef areas, and are
found in all oceans, from the poles to the tropics. Their commonplace nature
suggests the adults play a major role in ecosystems around the globe. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>To find out what these
y-adults might be, an international team of scientists used nets to collect
more than 40 species of y-larvae from a marine station at Sesoko Island near
Okinawa, Japan. As they were gathering the creatures, a cyclone approached.
</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"It was predicted to
hit the marine station five days after the arrival of our team," said
researcher Henrik Glenner, a molecular biologist at the University of
Copenhagen in Denmark. "This put us under substantial time pressure, because
we knew that it was impossible to catch the y-larvae after the cyclone had
passed. Therefore, we had to work during the nights." </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The researchers next exposed
y-larvae to a crustacean hormone that encouraged them to mature. The
creatures metamorphosized into a juvenile form, dubbed "ypsigons,"
unexpectedly shedding their exoskeletons to become wriggling, eyeless,
limbless creatures that resemble parasitic crustaceans. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>At first the researchers
thought their eyes were tricking them, but eventually "the juvenile literally
crawled out of the old larval carapace," Glenner recalled. "It was only after
several repeated experiments we actually believed what we saw. That feeling
was a mind-blowing experience."</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span
id="byLine"></span>The fact that ypsigons are vastly different and far
simpler than y-larvae might help explain why the adult versions of these
creatures have escaped detection for so long. These are so simple compared
with y-larvae that they even lack digestive tracts and nervous systems.
</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Ypsigons could make do
without a digestive tract by directly absorbing nutrients from their
surroundings, They might develop a nervous system later on in life, "but not
necessarily," Glenner said. </p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span
id="byLine"></span>"I know it sounds strange, but in some adult parasitic
barnacles  rhizocephalans, which parasitize other crustaceans  there
are no traces of a nervous system either," Glenner told LiveScience. "This is
possible because their behavior as adults is restricted to certain
coordinated movements when they release their larvae." </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>As the final adult stage of
the y-larvae are probably parasites, future efforts to uncover these y-adults
 to solve this mystery once and for all  will aim to identify their
hosts by screening coral reef animals for y-larvae DNA. </p><p
class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span><div style="width:100%;;"
class="box_brl sitewrapperbox"><script></script><table width="100%;"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_brl"><tr><td width="*" nowrap
class="boxHC_brl"><div class="hauto textSmallBold">Â Â Click for related
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class="bigRedLink"><a href="/id/24725068/">Extinct tiger gene resurrected in
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id="byLine"></span>"These parasites could play a very important role in the
wild," said researcher Jens Høeg, a marine zoologist and invertebrate
morphologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "They should not be
seen as evil or bad. Wherever these parasites are, be they in sea urchins or
sea stars or corals, they are probably important in making up what we
consider a normal, healthy coral reef." </p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span
id="byLine"></span>Høeg, Glenner and their colleagues Mark Grygier and
Yoshihisa Fujita detailed their findings May 19 in the journal BMC Biology.
They were supported by the Carlsberg Foundation in Denmark and the Lake Biwa
Museum in Japan. </p><div class="textBodyBlack"><i><em>© 2008
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if(pd_me.snm == 'MSNBC')
{
_uacct = "UA-2785729-1";
_udn = "msnbc.msn.com";
urchinTracker();
}
</script></body></html>
'End partial code. End of file
