Kleptoplasty
Encyclopedia
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
phenomenon whereby plastid
Plastid
Plastids are major organelles found in the cells of plants and algae. Plastids are the site of manufacture and storage of important chemical compounds used by the cell...
s from algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
are sequestered by host organisms. The alga is eaten normally and partially digested, leaving the plastid intact. The plastids are maintained within the host, temporarily retaining functional photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
for use by the predator. The term was coined in 1990 to describe chloroplast symbiosis.
DinoflagellateDinoflagellateThe dinoflagellates are a large group of flagellate protists. Most are marine plankton, but they are common in fresh water habitats as well. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity, or depth...
s
The stability of transient plastids varies considerably across plastid-retaining species. In the dinoflagellateDinoflagellate
The dinoflagellates are a large group of flagellate protists. Most are marine plankton, but they are common in fresh water habitats as well. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity, or depth...
s Gymnodinium spp.
Gymnodinium
Gymnodinium is a genus of dinoflagellates. It is one of the few naked dinoflagellates, or species lacking armor . Since 2000, the species which had been considered to be part of Gymnodinium have been divided into several genera, based on the nature of the apical groove and the biochemistry...
and Pfisteria piscicida, kleptoplastids are photosynthetically active for only a few days, while kleptoplastids in Dinophysis spp.
Dinophyceae
Dinokaryota is the main class of dinoflagellates. They include all species where the nucleus remains a dinokaryon throughout the entire cell cycle, which is typically dominated by the haploid stage. All the "typical" dinoflagellates, such as Peridinium and Gymnodinium, belong here. Others are...
can be stable for 2 months. For heterotrophic dinoflagellates, kleptoplasty has been hypothesized to represent either a mechanism permitting functional flexibility in dinoflagellates, or perhaps an early evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary stage in the permanent acquisition of chloroplasts.
CiliateCiliateThe ciliates are a group of protozoans characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagella but typically shorter and present in much larger numbers with a different undulating pattern than flagella...
s
Myrionecta rubra is a ciliate that steals chloroplasts from the cryptomonadCryptomonad
The cryptomonads are a group of algae, most of which have plastids. They are common in freshwater, and also occur in marine and brackish habitats. Each cell is around 10-50 μm in size and flattened in shape, with an anterior groove or pocket...
Geminigera cryophila.
ForaminiferaForaminiferaThe Foraminifera , or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists which are among the commonest plankton species. They have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net...
Some species of the foraminiferan genera Bulimina, ElphidiumElphidium
Elphidium is a genus of foraminiferan protozoa, one of the more common genera found near coasts. Like other forams, fossils from different species are used to date rocks.Elphidium shows dimorphism with alternating generations....
, Haynesina, Nonion, Nonionella, Nonionellina, Reophax, and Stainforthia have been shown to sequester diatom
Diatom
Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons , fans , zigzags , or stellate colonies . Diatoms are producers within the food chain...
chloroplasts.
SacoglossaSacoglossaSacoglossa, commonly known as the sacoglossans or the "sap-sucking sea slugs", are a clade of small sea slugs and sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that belong to the clade Heterobranchia...
n sea slugs
The only known animals that practice kleptoplasty are sea slugs in the clade SacoglossaSacoglossa
Sacoglossa, commonly known as the sacoglossans or the "sap-sucking sea slugs", are a clade of small sea slugs and sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that belong to the clade Heterobranchia...
. Several species of Sacoglossan sea slugs capture intact, functional chloroplasts from algal food sources, retaining them within specialized cells lining the mollusc's digestive diverticula. The longest known kleptoplastic association, which can last up to ten months, is found in Elysia chlorotica
Elysia chlorotica
Elysia chlorotica, common name the eastern emerald elysia, is a small-to-medium-sized species of green sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusc. This sea slug superficially resembles a nudibranch, yet it does not belong to that suborder of gastropods. Instead it is a member of the...
, which acquires chloroplasts by eating the alga Vaucheria litorea
Vaucheria litorea
Vaucheria litorea is a filamentous species of Xanthophyceae or yellow-green algae. V. litorea is a common intertidal species of coastal brackish waters and salt marshes of the Northern Atlantic, along the coasts of Europe and North America. It is also found in the Eastern Pacific coasts of...
, storing the chloroplasts in the cells that line its gut. Juvenile sea slugs establish the kleptoplastic endosymbiosis when feeding on algal cells, sucking out the cell contents, and discarding everything except the chloroplasts. The chloroplasts are phagocytosed by digestive cells, filling extensively branched digestive tubules, providing their host with the products of photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
.
This very unusual ability has led to these sacoglossans being referred to as "solar-powered sea slugs".
Some species of nudibranch
Nudibranch
A nudibranch is a member of what is now a taxonomic clade, and what was previously a suborder, of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shell after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms...
s such as Pteraeolidia ianthina
Pteraeolidia ianthina
Pteraeolidia ianthina is a species of sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Glaucidae.-Distribution:...
sequester whole living symbiotic zooxanthellae within their digestive diverticula, and thus they also manage to be "solar-powered".
See also
- Karyoklepty, a process in which the nucleus of the prey cell is kept by the predator as well
- Horizontal gene transferHorizontal gene transferHorizontal gene transfer , also lateral gene transfer , is any process in which an organism incorporates genetic material from another organism without being the offspring of that organism...