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Imagine a creature from a science fiction movie. It lives in the deep ocean. This animal is a supergiant isopod. It can survive for five years without eating. This seems impossible for large animals. Yet, this is normal for the isopod. It lives where water is cold and dark. Food is very hard to find there. Scientists have studied this mystery for a long time. A team from China has solved it. They published their findings in the journal Cell. The secret lies in a stolen genetic switch.
The supergiant isopod is related to pill bugs. However, it is much larger. It looks like a thick tablet. To survive, it uses a two-part strategy. Think of it like a personal budget. First, the isopod has a huge stomach. This organ takes up two-thirds of its body. It acts like a deep-freeze pantry. When food appears, the isopod eats a lot. It stores the energy for months or years. This ensures it has fuel for long periods.
Second, the isopod has a slow metabolism. Metabolism is how your body uses energy. By staying in energy-saving mode, the animal burns fuel slowly. The key to this is a gene named ND1. This gene slows down energy use. However, the isopod did not create this gene. It stole it from a bacterium. This process is called horizontal gene transfer. It is like biological copy-and-paste. The animal took a useful tool from bacteria. Then, it modified the gene to work better. This allowed perfect control of energy use.