Abstract
When the marine opisthobranchiate slug Hermaea bifida Mont. is incubated in a H14CO -3 -seawater medium in the light, a considerable net gain of 14C-assimilates is observed. Electron microscopic control provided evidence that this 14C-fixation is due to photosynthesis by chloroplasts (=rhodoplasts) endosymbiotic in the cells of the digestive gland of the slug. After thin-layer chromatographic analysis various 14C-labelled photosynthates could be traced. The assimilate pattern of the rhodoplasts is compared with that of the marine red alga Griffithsia flosculosa (Ellis) Batt., from which the plastids are acquired by feeding. The nutritional relationship of this endosymbiosis is discussed, with emphasis on the occurrence of functional chloroplast endosymbioses among the eolidiform species of the Sacoglossa.
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Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg
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Kremer, B.P., Schmitz, K. Aspects of 14CO2-fixation by endosymbiotic rhodoplasts in the marine opisthobranchiate Hermaea bifida . Mar. Biol. 34, 313–316 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00398124
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00398124