Japanese team creates 'planimal' cells that mix plant and animal traits

Plant or animal? A research team in Japan says its new cells are a bit of both.

The team has created what it calls "planimal" cells, hybrid plant-animal cells that have never been made before. It's a world first, according to the report.

The cells can produce useful proteins from both animals and plants. Even better, they can be cultured using photosynthesis, the process plants use to turn light into energy.

Why does that matter? Producing proteins this way could offer new methods of making drugs and meat. Instead of relying only on traditional farming or conventional lab set-ups, cells that grow on light could in theory make production simpler.

It's still early days, and the result is a lab breakthrough rather than something you'll find on a shelf or in a pharmacy. But it's a striking idea: one cell that borrows tricks from both sides of the living world.