A minor correction: The photosynthetic sea slugs are not nudibranchs but
sacoglossans, another major group of Heterobranchia or Opisthobranchia. They
are truly photosynthetic, but as far as I know, all have to acquire their
chloroplasts (the subcellular structures that contain the photosynthetic
machinery) by eating plant cell contents. Once they succeed at that they can
culture the chloroplasts, which have their own DNA and can multiply by
dividing,  in their own bodies for the rest of their lives. But who knows?
In the future, mother sacoglossans might evolve the ability to pass
chloroplasts on to their eggs and offspring, avoiding the intermiate step of
herbivory.

Alan


----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Stemke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 7:14 AM
Subject: [CONCH-L] Photosynthetic 'Sea Slugs'


>I just wanted to post this to the list.  It is quite fascinating:
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100112/sc_livescience/surprisingseaslugishalfplanthalfanimal
>
> So not only do nudibranchs steal nematocysts cells to protect them from
> their last meal to protect them from predators, now we see that at least
> one
> species is truly photosynthetic? Pretty neat.
>
> Doug
>
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