Photosynthate accumulation in solar-powered sea slugs - starving slugs survive due to accumulated starch reserves

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• 作者：Elise M. J. Laetz ; Victoria C. Moris ; Leif Moritz…
• 关键词：Sacoglossa ; Amylose ; Elysia ; Lugol’s Iodine ; Kleptoplast ; Starch
• 刊名：Frontiers in Zoology
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：December 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：14
• 期：1
• 全文大小：2358KB
• 刊物主题：Zoology; Applied Ecology; Biodiversity; Animal Physiology;
• 出版者：BioMed Central
• ISSN：1742-9994
• 卷排序：14

文摘

BackgroundSolar-powered sea slugs are famed for their ability to survive starvation due to incorporated algal chloroplasts. It is well established that algal-derived carbon can be traced in numerous slug-derived compounds, showing that slugs utilize the photosynthates produced by incorporated plastids. Recently, a new hypothesis suggests that the photosynthates produced are not continuously made available to the slug. Instead, at least some of the plastid’s photosynthetic products are stored in the plastid itself and only later become available to the slug. The long-term plastid-retaining slug, Elysia timida and its sole food source, Acetabularia acetabulum were examined to determine whether or not starch, a combination of amylose and amylopectin and the main photosynthate produced by A. acetabulum, is produced by the stolen plastids and whether it accumulates within individual kleptoplasts, providing an energy larder, made available to the slug at a later time.