• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.303-312
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• 2015

The intimate physical interaction between food algae and sacoglossan sea slug is a pertinent system to test the theory that “you are what you eat.” Some sacoglossan mollusks ingest and maintain chloroplasts that they acquire from the algae for photosynthesis. The basis of photosynthesis maintenance in these sea slugs was often explained by extensive horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from the food algae to the animal nucleus. Two large-scale expressed sequence tags databases of the green alga Bryopsis plumosa and sea slug Placida dendritica were established using 454 pyrosequencing. Comparison of the transcriptomes showed no possible case of putative HGT, except an actin gene from P. dendritica, designated as PdActin04, which showed 98.9% identity in DNA sequence with the complementary gene from B. plumosa, BpActin03. Highly conserved homologues of this actin gene were found from related green algae, but not in other photosynthetic sea slugs. Phylogenetic analysis showed incongruence between the gene and known organismal phylogenies of the two species. Our data suggest that HGT is not the primary reason underlying the maintenance of short-term kleptoplastidy in Placida dendritica.

• ALGAE
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.217-227
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• 2010

During feeding on algal cytoplasm, some sacoglossans are known to keep the chloroplasts photosynthetically active for days to months in their digestive cells. Korean sacoglossan mollusks containing functional chloroplasts were screened using an in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence measuring system (pulse amplitude modulation, PAM). We collected six sacoglossans feeding on siphonous and siphonocladous green algae (Elysia atroviridis, E. nigrocapitata, E. ornata, Ercolania boodleae, Placida dendritica, Stiliger sp.) and one feeding on ceramiaceaen algae (Stiliger berghi) and performed feeding experiments using 37 algal species. Three species of Elysia showed strong photosynthetic activity for months. However, P. dendritica maintained functional chloroplasts only for several hours after feeding. E. boodleae, S. berghi, and Stiliger sp. showed no photosynthetic activity in any circumstances. Among all species, E. nigrocapitata was capable to tolerate the longest period of starvation for over 4 months. Four 'solar powered' sacoglossans bonded avidly to their specific algal food. Each species attached to and consumed only one algal species when several algae were given together. While they occasionally consumed other algae after prolonged starvation, they always reverted to their specific algae when available.