Biology 2581B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Nucleomorph, Chlorarachniophyte, Horizontal Gene Transfer
13 Feb 2017
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The entire tree of life is a story of genetic merger. And then cyanobacterium enters much later and incorporates into the genome to become a chloroplast. Chloroplasts in red algae, land plants and green algae can be traced back to a single event. There"s horizontal transfer of chloroplasts across the eukaryotic tree. Primary chloroplast takes a cyanobacterium and integrates into cell. Secondary chloroplast integrate a eukaryotic cell (with a chloroplast in it already) into another cell. Kelp got chloroplasts by integrating a red algae into their cells. Most photosynthetic organisms acquired chloroplast via secondary endosymbiosis. Happened only once in evolution (for this course) Many eukaryotes survive by consuming photosynthetic algae. Most deadly parasite on earth: malaria parasite plasmodium. It has a nucleus, mitochondria and a secondary chloroplast. It is not photosynthetic because the organelle lost the photosynthetic ability. To battle malaria, could find a way to target the chloroplast since it wouldn"t affect humans.
