What makes a chloroplast? Reconstructing the establishment of photosynthetic symbioses

Abstract

Earth is populated by an extraordinary diversity of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Many eukaryotic lineages contain chloroplasts, obtained through the endosymbiosis of a wide range of photosynthetic prokaryotes or eukaryotes, and a wide variety of otherwise non-photosynthetic species form transient associations with photosynthetic symbionts. Chloroplast lineages are likely to be derived from pre-existing transient symbioses, but it is as yet poorly understood what steps are required for the establishment of permanent chloroplasts from photosynthetic symbionts. In the past decade, several species that contain relatively recently acquired chloroplasts, such as the rhizarian Paulinella chromatophora, and non-photosynthetic taxa that maintain photosynthetic symbionts, such as the sacoglossan sea slug Elysia, the ciliate Myrionecta rubra and the dinoflagellate Dinophysis, have emerged as potential model organisms in the study of chloroplast establishment. In this Commentary, we compare recent molecular insights into the maintenance of chloroplasts and photosynthetic symbionts from these lineages, and others that might represent the early stages of chloroplast establishment. We emphasise the importance in the establishment of chloroplasts of gene transfer events that minimise oxidative stress acting on the symbiont. We conclude by assessing whether chloroplast establishment is facilitated in some lineages by a mosaic of genes, derived from multiple symbiotic associations, encoded in the host nucleus.