Kleptoplasty: Getting away with stolen chloroplasts
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Preparation of Chloroplast Sub-compartments from Arabidopsis for the Analysis of Protein Localization by Immunoblotting or Proteomics
Published on: October 19, 2018
1Laboratory for Innovation and Sustainability of Marine Biological Resources (ECOMARE), Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
Abstract:
Kleptoplasty, the process by which a host organism sequesters and retains algal chloroplasts, is relatively common in protists. The origin of the plastid varies, as do the length of time it is retained in the host and the functionality of the association. In metazoa, the capacity for long-term (several weeks to months) maintenance of photosynthetically active chloroplasts is a unique characteristic of a handful of sacoglossan sea slugs. This capability has earned these slugs the epithets "crawling leaves" and "solar-powered sea slugs." This Unsolved Mystery explores the basis of chloroplast maintenance and function and attempts to clarify contradictory results in the published literature. We address some of the mysteries of this remarkable association. Why are functional chloroplasts retained? And how is the function of stolen chloroplasts maintained without the support of the algal nucleus?
Related Concept Videos
The Anatomy of Chloroplasts
Structure of...
Anatomy of Chloroplasts
Export of Mitochondrial and Chloroplast Genes
Protein Transport to the Inner Chloroplast Membrane
Protein Transport to the Outer Chloroplast Membrane
Two models describe the mechanism of precursor recognition and entry across the outer membrane through the TOC complex. Model 1 suggests the newly synthesized precursor binds to the TOC receptor 159 and forms a complex.
Protein Transport to the Stroma
Protein complexes called the translocon of the outer chloroplast membrane or TOC complex, and the translocon of the inner chloroplast membrane or TIC complex mediate the...

