'', packed with chloroplasts taken from green algae.
C = chloroplast,
N = cell nucleus.
Electron micrograph: scale bar is 3 μm.]]
Kleptoplasty or kleptoplastidy is a process in symbiosis relationships whereby , notably from algae, are sequestered by the host. The word is derived from Kleptes (κλέπτης) which is Greek language for thief. The alga is eaten normally and partially digested, leaving the plastid intact. The plastids are maintained within the host, temporarily continuing photosynthesis and benefiting the host.
Etymology
The word kleptoplasty is derived from
Ancient Greek κλέπτης (), meaning , and πλαστός (), originally meaning formed or moulded, and used in biology to mean a
plastid.
Process
Kleptoplasty is a process in
symbiosis relationships whereby
, notably
from
algae, are sequestered by the host. The alga is eaten normally and partially digested, leaving the plastid intact. The plastids are maintained within the host, temporarily continuing
photosynthesis and benefiting the host.
The term was coined in 1990 to describe chloroplast symbiosis.
Occurrence
Kleptoplasty has been acquired in various independent clades of
, namely
single-celled protists of the
SAR supergroup and the
Euglenozoa phylum, and some marine invertebrate
.
In protists
Foraminifera
Some species of the
genera
Bulimina,
Elphidium,
Haynesina,
Nonion,
Nonionella,
Nonionellina,
Reophax, and
Stainforthia sequester
diatom chloroplasts.
Dinoflagellates
The stability of transient plastids varies considerably across plastid-retaining species. In the
Gymnodinium and
Pfiesteria piscicida, kleptoplastids are photosynthetically active for only a few days, while kleptoplastids in
Dinophysis, taken from
,
can be stable for 2 months.
In other dinoflagellates, kleptoplasty has been hypothesized to represent either a mechanism permitting functional flexibility, or perhaps an early
stage in the permanent acquisition of chloroplasts.
Ciliates
Mesodinium rubrum is a
ciliate that steals chloroplasts from the
cryptomonad Geminigera cryophila.
participates in additional endosymbiosis by transferring its plastids to its predators, the dinoflagellate planktons belonging to the genus
Dinophysis.
Karyoklepty is a related process in which the nucleus of the prey cell is kept by the host as well. This was first described in 2007 in M. rubrum.
Euglenozoa
The first and only case of kleptoplasty within
Euglenozoa belongs to the species
Rapaza viridis, the earliest diverging lineage of
Euglenophyceae. This microorganism requires a constant supply of a strain of
Tetraselmis microalgae, which it ingests to extract chloroplasts. The kleptoplasts are then progressively transformed into ones that resemble the permanent chloroplasts of the remaining Euglenophyceae. Cells of
Rapaza viridis can survive for up to 35 days with these kleptoplasts.
Kleptoplasty is considered the mode of nutrition of the euglenophycean common ancestor. It is hypothesized that kleptoplasty allowed for various events of horizontal gene transfer that eventually allowed the establishment of permanent chloroplasts in the remaining Euglenophyceae.
Animals
Rhabdocoel flatworms
Two species of
Rhabdocoela marine flatworms,
Baicalellia solaris and
Pogaina paranygulgus, make use of kleptoplasty. The group was previously classified as having algal endosymbionts, though it was already discovered that the endosymbionts did not contain nuclei.
[E. Marcus, Turbellaria Brasileiros (9). Bol. Fac. Fil. Ci. Letras Univ. São Paulo 16, 5–215 (1951).]
While consuming diatoms, B. solaris and P. paranygulus, in a process not yet discovered, extract plastids from their prey, incorporating them subepidermally, while separating and digesting the frustule and remainder of the diatom. In B. solaris the extracted plastids, or kleptoplasts, continue to exhibit functional photosynthesis for a short period of roughly 7 days. As the two groups are not sister taxa, and the trait is not shared among groups more closely related, there is evidence that kleptoplasty evolved independently within the two taxa.
Sea slugs (gastropods)
Sacoglossa
in the clade
Sacoglossa practise kleptoplasty.
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,
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
phagocytosis by digestive cells, filling extensively branched digestive tubules, providing their host with the products of photosynthesis.
It is not resolved, however, whether the stolen plastids actively secrete photosynthate or whether the slugs profit indirectly from slowly degrading kleptoplasts.
Due to this unusual ability, the sacoglossans are sometimes referred to as "solar-powered sea slugs", though the actual benefit from photosynthesis on the survival of some of the species that have been analyzed seems to be marginal at best.
Changes in temperature have been shown to negatively affect kleptoplastic abilities in sacoglossans. Rates of photosynthetic efficiency as well as kleptoplast abundance have been shown to decrease in correlation to a decrease in temperature. The patterns and rate of these changes, however, varies between different species of sea slug.
Nudibranchia
Some species of another group of sea slugs,
such as
Pteraeolidia ianthina, sequester whole living symbiotic
zooxanthellae within their digestive diverticula, and thus are similarly "solar-powered".
See also
External links
