ArticleCell2025
A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis.
Article in Cell, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Red light promotes sea slug growth while blue light increases longevity of stolen chloroplasts.Biology open · 2026Article
- Virulensome: a transient organelle mediating fungal virulence.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Development of venus-fused Cypridina luciferase (VCL) and specific nanobody-tethering assay to model kleptoprotein uptake.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2026Article
- Horizontal transfer of mitochondria in cancer: The physiology reborn in disease?Trends in cell biology · 2026Review
- Co-option of Lysosomal Machinery for Sponge Biosilicification.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sea urchin eggs contain a plastid-derived structure that contributes to their development.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Laboratory Rearing of the Photosynthetic Sea SlugBiology · 2026Article
- Kleptomaniac sea slugs steal their greens.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Eukaryotic life evolved over a billion years ago when ancient cells engulfed and integrated prokaryotes to become modern mitochondria and chloroplasts. Sacoglossan "solar-powered" sea slugs possess the ability to acquire organelles within a single lifetime by selectively retaining consumed chloroplasts that remain photosynthetically active for nearly a year. The mechanism for this "animal photosynthesis" remains unknown. Here, we discovered that foreign chloroplasts are housed within novel, host-derived organelles we term "kleptosomes." Kleptosomes use ATP-sensitive ion channels to maintain a luminal environment that supports chloroplast photosynthesis and longevity. Upon slug starvation, kleptosomes digest stored chloroplasts for additional nutrients, thereby serving as a food source. We leveraged this discovery to find that organellar retention and digestion of photosynthetic cargo has convergently evolved in other photosynthetic animals, including corals and anemones. Thus, our study reveals mechanisms underlying the long-term acquisition and evolutionary incorporation of intracellular symbionts into organelles that support complex cellular function.
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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.