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Kleptoplasty
 
 
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Kleptoplasty or kleptoplastidy is a symbiotic
Symbiosis

The term symbiosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species. The term was first used in 1879 by the Germany mycology Heinrich Anton de Bary, who defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms"....
 phenomenon whereby plastid
Plastid

Plastids are major organelles found in 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. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds....
 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

File:Seawifs global biosphere.jpgPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight....
 for use by the predator. The term was coined in 1990 to describe chloroplast symbiosis.

The stability of transient plastids varies considerably across plastid-retaining species.






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Kleptoplasty or kleptoplastidy is a symbiotic
Symbiosis

The term symbiosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species. The term was first used in 1879 by the Germany mycology Heinrich Anton de Bary, who defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms"....
 phenomenon whereby plastid
Plastid

Plastids are major organelles found in 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. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds....
 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

File:Seawifs global biosphere.jpgPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight....
 for use by the predator. The term was coined in 1990 to describe chloroplast symbiosis.

The stability of transient plastids varies considerably across plastid-retaining species. In the dinoflagellate
Dinoflagellate

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 sea surface temperature, salinity, or depth....
s Gymnodinium spp.
Gymnodinium

Gymnodinium is a genus of dinoflagellates. It is one of the few naked dinoflagellates 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

The Dinophyceae are the main class of dinoflagellates. They include all species where the cell nucleus remains a dinokaryon throughout the entire cell cycle, which is typically dominated by the haploid stage....
 and Myrionecta rubra 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

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
ary stage in the permanent acquisition of chloroplasts.

Several species of Sacoglossan sea slugs
Sacoglossa

Sacoglossa, commonly known as the sacoglossans, are a taxonomic Order of small bubble snails, sea snails and sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks in the superorder Heterobranchia....
 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 is a small-to-medium-sized species of green sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk.This sea slug superficially resembles a nudibranch, but it does not belong to that suborder of gastropods....
, which acquires chloroplasts by eating the alga Vaucheria litorea, 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
Phagocytosis

File:Phagocytosis in three steps.pngPhagocytosis is the cell process of Phagocytes and Protists of engulfing solid particles by the cell membrane to form an internal phagosome, which is a food vacuole, or pteroid....
 by digestive cells, filling extensively branched digestive tubules, providing their host with the products of photosynthesis
Photosynthesis

File:Seawifs global biosphere.jpgPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight....
.

See also

  • Karyoklepty, a process in which the nucleus of the prey is kept by the predator as well
  • Horizontal gene transfer
    Horizontal gene transfer

    Horizontal gene transfer , also Lateral gene transfer , is any process in which an organism incorporates genetic material from another organism without being the Reproduction of that organism....


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