Scientists fuse algae into animal cells to make ‘planimal’ cells, a first that could one day cut lab and food costs

Scientists in Japan have combined plant and animal cells into living hybrids they call “planimal” cells, according to a study published Nov. 12 in the journal Nature Communications and the University of Tokyo.  They say it is the first time nearly the entire genome of one complex organism has been stably housed inside the cells of a distantly related one.

The team fused cells of a red alga (Cyanidioschyzon merolae, a simple single-celled plant) with cultured animal cells from hamsters.  The resulting cells kept more than 16 million “letters” of algal DNA — including whole algal chromosomes — and passed it along as they divided more than 150 times, without the researchers having to force the cells to hold onto it.

How it works, and why the DNA stays quiet

Genes normally move between species only rarely, and almost never in large chunks between complex organisms.  To spark the transfer, the team mixed the two cell types with a chemical that makes their outer membranes merge.  The algal chromosomes then settled inside the animal cell’s nucleus, the compartment that holds its DNA, and attached to the animal chromosomes.

The borrowed DNA did not start working, though.  The animal cell coated it with chemical tags — a process called DNA methylation that acts like a volume knob turned to zero — keeping the algal genes switched off.  When the researchers disabled an enzyme that adds those tags, the cells were less able to hold onto the foreign DNA.  That suggests the silencing is what lets the cell tolerate such a large load of outside genes in the first place.

Could it help grow meat in a lab?

Possibly someday, but not yet, and the study itself doesn’t test it. Lab-grown, or “cultivated,” meat is made by growing animal cells in big tanks of nutrient broth instead of raising and slaughtering animals. That broth is the biggest cost: industry experts surveyed by the nonprofit Good Food Institute estimated it could account for 55% to more than 95% of the cost of making cultivated meat at large scale.

The researchers’ long-term goal is animal cells that can make some of their own food and useful substances the way plants do, using light. If cells that make useful proteins could be grown in large amounts that way, it “could provide a new means of producing drugs and cultured meat,” The Japan Times reported in its story on the team’s work. The team’s lead researcher, Sachihiro Matsunaga, also said in 2024 that light-powered cells might one day help lab-grown tissue such as “artificial meat” grow larger by supplying oxygen.

For now, though, the algal genes in these cells are switched off, and the cells came from hamster ovaries, a line used to make drugs, not meat. Getting cells to actually photosynthesize and feed themselves remains unsolved.

What it means

For now these are lab cells, not a product, and they do not photosynthesize.  But the researchers say the technique could eventually let animal cells carry useful plant abilities — such as making their own nutrients or raw materials — which could lower the cost of growing cells for medicine or food and cut carbon dioxide.  Those uses remain years away and unproven.

Source: University of Tokyo press release, Nov. 2026; “Epigenetic gatekeeping enables genome-scale horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotic cells,” Nature Communications, Nov. 12, 2026; The Japan Times, Nov. 13, 2026; University of Tokyo, “Solar-powered animal cells,” 2024; Good Food Institute, culture medium cost analysis, 2021.