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Off the coast of California, puffy slug-like creatures—named sea hares (Aplysia californica) for their bunny ear-like tentacles—chomp their way across underwater fields of red-brown algae. The algae produce mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), chemicals that give the sea hares their murky maroon hues. The animals deploy these same molecules for defense. When faced with predators such as starfish or lobsters, sea hares puff out purple clouds of MAA-loaded ink mixed with opaline, a milky-white fluid; the chemicals deter enemies and warn neighboring sea hares to race to safety. California sea hares like this one get MAA from the algae they eat; some researchers label the compound a keystone molecule for the multiple roles it plays throughout the ecosystem. Image courtesy of Kevin Lee (photographer). As they studied these interactions, Charles Derby of Georgia State University and his colleagues realized that the myriad messages conveyed by MAAs rippled across many levels of the community, from plants to sea hares to apex predators, such as starfish (1). To Derby, this role qualified MAAs for an intriguing concept: certain molecules could have surprisingly large impacts on multiple levels in ecosystems, even when they were only present in tiny concentrations (2). “What started off as a single compound made by one species has effects that reverberate throughout a food web at different trophic levels,” says ecologist Richard Zimmer of the University of California, Los Angeles, who developed this idea of “keystone molecules.” “So this one molecule punches in with effects that …

Can single molecules bind together entire ecosystems?