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This picture, taken during a lab experiment, shows abalone larvae that have recently settled and are browsing on a red algal surface. The larval surface receptors controlling the events of metamorphosis have been activated by contact with unique peptides at the alga's surface. In a project previously supported by the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discovered that some red algae produced chemical signals that regulate the metamorphosis of abalone, from its larval stage to its mature form.
Image credit: Robert Sisson, ©National Geographic Society
