ArticleThe Journal of experimental biology2011
The making of a photosynthetic animal.
Article in The Journal of experimental biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 178 citations in OpenAlex.
- Red light promotes sea slug growth while blue light increases longevity of stolen chloroplasts.Biology open · 2026Article
- Horizontal transfer of mitochondria in cancer: The physiology reborn in disease?Trends in cell biology · 2026Review
- First Direct Evidence for a Structurally Stable Adhesion Between the Perialgal Vacuole Membrane and Host Mitochondria in theBiomolecules · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial and photosynthetic therapy: A crucial strategy for remodeling cellular metabolic function.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2025Review
- Loss of state transitions in Bryopsidales macroalgae and kleptoplastic sea slugs (Gastropoda, Sacoglossa).Communications biology · 2025Article
- Array of metabolic pathways in a kleptoplastidic foraminiferan protist supports chemoautotrophy in dark, euxinic seafloor sediments.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- The impacts of host association and perturbation on symbiont fitness.Symbiosis (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2024Article
- Prey species and abundance affect growth and photosynthetic performance of the polyphagous sea slugRoyal Society open science · 2023Article
- The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction.Acta biotheoretica · 2023Article
- Kleptoplasty: Getting away with stolen chloroplasts.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Ultraviolet screening by slug tissue and tight packing of plastids protect photosynthetic sea slugs from photoinhibition.Photosynthesis research · 2022Article
- Aposymbiotic Specimen of the Photosynthetic Sea SlugDiversity · 2022Article
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- Photosynthesis from stolen chloroplasts can support sea slug reproductive fitness.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Genetic autonomy and low singlet oxygen yield support kleptoplast functionality in photosynthetic sea slugs.Journal of experimental botany · 2021Article
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- Animal biosynthesis of complex polyketides in a photosynthetic partnership.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Fatty Acids of Marine Mollusks: Impact of Diet, Bacterial Symbiosis and Biosynthetic Potential.Biomolecules · 2019Review
- Biochemical Characteristics of Microbial Enzymes and Their Significance from Industrial Perspectives.Molecular biotechnology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Symbiotic animals containing green photobionts challenge the common perception that only plants are capable of capturing the sun's rays and converting them into biological energy through photoautotrophic CO(2) fixation (photosynthesis). 'Solar-powered' sacoglossan molluscs, or sea slugs, have taken this type of symbiotic association one step further by solely harboring the photosynthetic organelle, the plastid (=chloroplast). One such sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, lives as a 'plant' when provided with only light and air as a result of acquiring plastids during feeding on its algal prey Vaucheria litorea. The captured plastids (kleptoplasts) are retained intracellularly in cells lining the digestive diverticula of the sea slug, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as kleptoplasty. Photosynthesis by the plastids provides E. chlorotica with energy and fixed carbon for its entire lifespan of ~10 months. The plastids are not transmitted vertically (i.e. are absent in eggs) and do not undergo division in the sea slug. However, de novo protein synthesis continues, including plastid- and nuclear-encoded plastid-targeted proteins, despite the apparent absence of algal nuclei. Here we discuss current data and provide hypotheses to explain how long-term photosynthetic activity is maintained by the kleptoplasts. This fascinating 'green animal' provides a unique model to study the evolution of photosynthesis in a multicellular heterotrophic organism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.