A sea slug’s guide to plastid symbiosis

Abstract

Some 140 years ago sea slugs that contained chlorophyll-pigmented granules similar to those of plants were described. While we now understand that these “green granules” are plastids the slugs sequester from siphonaceous algae upon which they feed, surprisingly little is really known about the molecular details that underlie this one of a kind animal-plastid symbiosis. Kleptoplasts are stored in the cytosol of epithelial cells that form the slug’s digestive tubules, and one would guess that the stolen organelles are acquired for their ability to fix carbon, but studies have never really been able to prove that. We also do not know how the organelles are distinguished from the remaining food particles the slugs incorporate with their meal and that include algal mitochondria and nuclei. We know that the ability to store kleptoplasts long-term has evolved only a few times independently among hundreds of sacoglossan species, but we have no idea on what basis. Here we take a closer look at the history of sacoglossan research and discuss recent developments. We argue that, in order to understand what makes this symbiosis work, we will need to focus on the animal’s physiology just as much as we need to commence a detailed analysis of the plastids’ photobiology. Understanding kleptoplasty in sacoglossan slugs requires an unbiased multidisciplinary approach.