Sacoglossa - Use of Ingested Cellular Material

Use of Ingested Cellular Material

The sacoglossans can utilise the chloroplasts of the algae on which they feed, which they keep alive for hours to months after their ingestion. They maintain the cells and metabolise the photosynthetic products; this process is termed kleptoplasty, and the sacoglossans are the only animals to employ it; some ciliates and foramanifera (protists) also employ the strategy. Sacoglossans have been known to survive for months living solely on the photosynthetic products of their acquired plastids. This process is somewhat mystifying, as the upkeep of chloroplasts usually requires interaction with genes encoded in the plant cell nucleus. This almost seems to suggest that the genes have been laterally transferred from algae to the animals. DNA amplification experiments on E. chloritica adults and eggs using V.litora derived primers revealed the presence of psbO, an algal nuclear gene. These results support the inter-domain horizontal transfer of an algal gene to a mollusc host, its expression in that host, and its insertion into the germline even though the plastids are not transmitted vertically in the sea slugs. Sacoglossans are able to choose which method of feeding they utilize. The switch from active feeding to photosynthesis in sacoglossans is triggered by the shortage of food resource, and typically not preferred. If food is readily available, the animal will actively consume. Starvation periods (periods of photosynthesis and no active feeding) vary between species of sacoglossans from less than a week to over four months and is used as a last resort mechanism to avoid mortality. Another unclear step in the process is how the chloroplasts are protected from digestion, and how they adapt to their new position in animal cells without the membranes that would control their environment in the algae. However it is achieved, kleptoplasty is an important strategy for many genera of Placobranchacaea. One species of Elysia feeds on a seasonally-calcifying alga. Because it is unable to penetrate the calcified cell walls, the animal can only feed for part of the year, relying on the ingested chloroplasts to survive whilst the foodstuff is calcified, until later in the season when the calcification is lost and the grazing can continue.

Sacoglossans can also utilize anti-herbivory compounds produced by their algal foodstuffs to deter their own would-be predators, in a process termed kleptochemistry. This may be achieved by converting algal metabolites to toxins, or by using algal pigments for camouflage in a process termed nutritional homochromy.