The secret to the evolutionary success of organisms like plats, green algae, and cyanobacteria is light-harvesting proteins that harness energy from the sun. Long before photosynthetic proteins dominated the planet, another group of light-harvesting proteins made their debut: rhodopsins. Now, reporting in Current Biology, a team of evolutionary and synthetic biologists reenacted this process by transferring a rhodopsin gene from one eukaryotic species to another to see whether it still functioned in its unfamiliar host, offering a glimpse into how rhodopsins found their way into eukaryotic evolutionary history. Study authors include biology Ph.D. student Autumn Peterson, Research Scientist Anthony Burnetti, CMDI grant writer Carina Baskett, and Associate Professor William Ratcliff.