Host/symbiont specificity has been investigated in non-symbiotic and aposymbiotic brown and green hydra infected with various free-living and symbiotic species and strains of Chlorella and Chlorococcum. Morphology and ultrastructure of the symbioses obtained have been compared. Aposymbiotic Swiss Hydra viridis and Japanese H. magnipapillata served as controls. In two strains of H. attenuata sta...

Some trypanosomatids harbor a symbiotic bacterium, which maintains a close association with the host, constituting an excellent model to study organelle origin and cellular evolution. Molecular data show that all endosymbiontharboring trypanosomatids are grouped together in a single phylogenetic branch. According to rRNA sequences, symbionts of different species are similar, being classified in...

The integration of foreign genetic information is central to the evolution of eukaryotes, as has been demonstrated for the origin of the Calvin cycle and of the heme and carotenoid biosynthesis pathways in algae and plants. For photosynthetic lineages, this coordination involved three genomes of divergent phylogenetic origins (the nucleus, plastid, and mitochondrion). Major hurdles overcome by ...

Chlorarachniophyte algae possess complex plastids acquired by the secondary endosymbiosis of a green alga, and the plastids harbor a relict nucleus of the endosymbiont, the so-called nucleomorph. Due to massive gene transfer from the endosymbiont to the host, many proteins involved in plastid and nucleomorph are encoded by the nuclear genome. Genome sequences have provided a blueprint for the f...

Plastids (photosynthetic organelles of plants and algae) are known to have spread between eukaryotic lineages by secondary endosymbiosis, that is, by the uptake of a eukaryotic alga by another eukaryote. But the number of times this has taken place is controversial. This is particularly so in the case of eukaryotes with plastids derived from red algae, which are numerous and diverse. Despite th...

Photosynthesis evolved in eukaryotes by the endosymbiosis of a cyanobacterium, the future plastid, within a heterotrophic host. This primary endosymbiosis occurred in the ancestor of Archaeplastida, a eukaryotic supergroup that includes glaucophytes, red algae, green algae, and land plants [1-4]. However, although the endosymbiotic origin of plastids from a single cyanobacterial ancestor is fir...

UNLABELLED We describe a novel symbiotic association between a kinetoplastid protist, Novymonas esmeraldas gen. nov., sp. nov., and an intracytoplasmic bacterium, "Candidatus Pandoraea novymonadis" sp. nov., discovered as a result of a broad-scale survey of insect trypanosomatid biodiversity in Ecuador. We characterize this association by describing the morphology of both organisms, as well as ...

Plastids are vital organelles, fulfilling important metabolic functions that greatly influence plant growth and productivity. In order to both regulate and harness the metabolic output of plastids, it is vital that the process of plastid division is carefully controlled. This is essential, not only to ensure persistence in dividing plant cells and that optimal numbers of plastids are obtained i...