Chapter 591 Reproduction Mode
Ten days later, Bai Yulou and Simon and his crew had adapted to the gravity of Venus.
At the same time, they also found out the basic conditions of residential areas, agricultural areas, industrial areas, mining areas and warehousing areas.
With their arrival, a large number of scientific research cabins that had been attached to the agricultural area were also re-divided to form a separate scientific research area.
Bai Yulou and others who were officially working came to a laboratory with a very high level of protection - the Venus Biological Laboratory.
This "Venus Biological Laboratory" studies the native organisms on Venus.
In the culture room inside the laboratory, Bai Yulou saw the first Venusian organism - nitrogen algae.
Nitrogen algae is only the size of a finger, a translucent colloid, with a large number of nitrogen sacs in its body, which can float in the air with the help of the buoyancy of nitrogen.
They are named nitrogen algae because they contain chlorophyll organisms similar to algae. They absorb carbon dioxide and some free water molecules and use photosynthesis to synthesize organic matter.
In the atmospheric ecosystem of Venus, a total of 37 species of nitrogen algae have been discovered so far. They live in the atmosphere 30 to 50 kilometers above the surface.
In addition to nitrogen algae, there are also air jellyfish that feed on nitrogen algae, and more than a dozen kinds of microorganisms that parasitize in the bodies of air jellyfish.
This is the ecosystem of Venus' atmosphere, a very tenacious yet very fragile ecosystem.
If it weren't for the arrival of Homo Sapiens, it might have taken decades for them to be discovered by humans.
In fact, the Sapiens Company is no longer surprised by the existence of life on other planets.
The moon has an underground ecosystem, Mars also has an underground ecosystem, and Venus has an atmospheric ecosystem. These are all very normal things.
We cannot deny the existence of other planets based on the standards of the Earth's ecosystem, because life has infinite possibilities.
The earth and its creatures are actually the result of a two-way journey.
It is not the environment of the earth that creates living things. Throughout the entire process, living things are also constantly influencing and adjusting the earth.
For example, billions of years ago, the blue-green algae absorbed carbon dioxide and released oxygen, which directly killed most of the anaerobic bacteria and caused the Great Oxidation Event on Earth. Today, minerals such as iron oxide and copper oxide on Earth are the result of the Great Oxidation Event.
The gradual increase in the proportion of oxygen in the atmosphere also caused the Earth to begin to cool down, with obvious alternations between hot and cold.
If cyanobacteria had not been born on Earth in time, Venus might have served as a lesson for the Earth.
Of course, the extremely high carbon dioxide concentration on Venus does not mean that no life can be born. For example, there is a layer in the high atmosphere that is more suitable for life.
Nitrogen algae, air jellyfish and the like were born in this environment.
In this biological culture room on Venus, you can see nitrogen algae floating in the wind. They have been studied by many scientific researchers. Synchronous robots are very convenient. There is no need for people to come to Venus in person, and research can be carried out remotely.
Bai Yulou opened the biological plate and inserted it into the laboratory's database, and then he found many relevant research reports.
Some study the organelles of nitrogen algae, some study reproduction, and some study special compounds.
Among them, the research on how nitrogen algae resist radiation is the most popular research direction, because Venus's magnetic field is too weak to block the solar wind at all.
The habitat of nitrogen algae is located in the atmosphere at an altitude of 30 to 50 kilometers, although the atmospheric concentration in this area is several times higher than that on the earth's surface.
But this does not block ultraviolet rays and other high-energy rays, after all, there is no ozone layer in Venus' atmosphere.
Therefore, faced with such strong ultraviolet rays, high-energy rays and high-energy particles, many researchers are very curious about how nitrogen algae survive in such an environment.
Bai Yulou was also very curious, and he carefully read the relevant research reports.
It turns out that the surface composition of nitrogen algae is very strange, and the core is also very strange.
The gelatinous layer on its surface is composed of dense sulfur compounds, which are made from sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus. It can effectively block harmful cosmic rays and high-energy particles, and only allow a part of the usable sunlight to enter the inner core.
Similarly, the core of nitrogen algae is wrapped in nitrogen, and the core is divided into photosynthetic core and the most important reproductive core.
"Huh? This thing actually has extremely strong gene repair capabilities?" Bai Yulou saw a very interesting research report.
The reproductive kernels of nitrogen algae can be divided into male and female according to different types, that is, nitrogen algae have gender.
When they reproduce, it is also very simple. The neutral skin of male nitrogen algae will gradually turn into positive charge, while the neutral skin of female and male nitrogen algae will turn into negative charge, and then they will attract each other and mate.
This is a common skill of the nitrogen algae family.
Obviously, this is a reproduction method that suits local conditions. After all, this is not Earth. Nitrogen algae do not have enough resources, and they cannot just spray their offspring into the atmosphere. Otherwise, cosmic rays and high-energy particles will kill most of the offspring and cause serious genetic mutations.
But this is not the most amazing thing.
The most amazing thing about nitrogen algae is that their male and female reproductive cells are of the same type, and both have 11 complete pairs of chromosomes.
When they enter the reproductive union state, the male and female germ cells will fuse together and then form a diploid, and then complete the division to form a new haploid, that is, the offspring is born.
The brood will build its own nitrogen algae body between the male and female nitrogen algae, and the brood will absorb nutrients from the mother body. However, when its body size grows to about one twentieth of the mother body, it can separate from the mother body and become a new nitrogen algae.
Generally speaking, the nitrogen algae mother can only reproduce 22 to 25 offspring, and then it will die completely.
However, less than one-tenth of these nitrogen algae can develop into maturity.
What Bai Yulou was more curious about was the response mechanism of nitrogen algae to individuals with genetic mutations. Normally, the reproductive cells of nitrogen algae have a relatively strong self-repair ability. If the genetic damage is too severe, the mother body will automatically trigger the autophagy mechanism and digest the reproductive cells that have lost their reproductive value.
This is an ability that humans do not currently have. To be more precise, it is an ability that human males do not have. The reproductive cells of human females have a certain self-repair ability, while male reproductive cells cannot repair themselves.
In order to solve the problem of genetic damage in male germ cells, Sapiens has organized a number of research projects in the past, including learning from the self-repair ability of female germ cells. Unfortunately, the huge differences between male and female germ cells have meant that there has been no way to solve the problem.
Now, the reproduction has certain reference significance for humans.
Baiyulou even discovered a blind spot.
That is "neutralization". Although the gender issue within the Homo sapiens company is not serious, the differences in the physiological structures of both sides still pose considerable hidden dangers.
If one day in the future, there is no difference in physiological structure between men and women, and both can reproduce offspring, then there will be no difference between men and women.
After all , there are no obvious individual differences between nitrogen algae . The reason why the reproductive cells of the two are divided into male and female is mainly to facilitate pairing and reproduction.
Under certain conditions, the sexes of nitrogen algae can be converted into each other.
