Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata

Elysia crispata is a sacoglossan sea slug that retains intracellular, functional chloroplasts stolen from their macroalgal food sources. Elysia crispata juveniles start feeding on the algae following metamorphosis, engulfing chloroplasts and turning green. In laboratory-reared animals, we report one...

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Autores principales: Cartaxana, Paulo, Lopes, Diana, Martinez, Begoña, Martins, Patrícia, Cruz, Sónia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9185520/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35911605
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d14050313
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author Cartaxana, Paulo
Lopes, Diana
Martinez, Begoña
Martins, Patrícia
Cruz, Sónia
author_facet Cartaxana, Paulo
Lopes, Diana
Martinez, Begoña
Martins, Patrícia
Cruz, Sónia
author_sort Cartaxana, Paulo
collection PubMed
description Elysia crispata is a sacoglossan sea slug that retains intracellular, functional chloroplasts stolen from their macroalgal food sources. Elysia crispata juveniles start feeding on the algae following metamorphosis, engulfing chloroplasts and turning green. In laboratory-reared animals, we report one juvenile “albino” specimen unable to retain chloroplasts. Within 6 weeks post-metamorphosis, the aposymbiotic sea slug was significantly smaller than its chloroplast-bearing siblings. This evidence highlights that chloroplast acquisition is required for the normal development of E. crispata.
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spelling pubmed-91855202022-07-27 Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata Cartaxana, Paulo Lopes, Diana Martinez, Begoña Martins, Patrícia Cruz, Sónia Diversity (Basel) Interesting Images Elysia crispata is a sacoglossan sea slug that retains intracellular, functional chloroplasts stolen from their macroalgal food sources. Elysia crispata juveniles start feeding on the algae following metamorphosis, engulfing chloroplasts and turning green. In laboratory-reared animals, we report one juvenile “albino” specimen unable to retain chloroplasts. Within 6 weeks post-metamorphosis, the aposymbiotic sea slug was significantly smaller than its chloroplast-bearing siblings. This evidence highlights that chloroplast acquisition is required for the normal development of E. crispata. MDPI 2022-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9185520/ /pubmed/35911605 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d14050313 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Interesting Images
Cartaxana, Paulo
Lopes, Diana
Martinez, Begoña
Martins, Patrícia
Cruz, Sónia
Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title_full Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title_fullStr Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title_full_unstemmed Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title_short Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata
title_sort aposymbiotic specimen of the photosynthetic sea slug elysia crispata
topic Interesting Images
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9185520/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35911605
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d14050313
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