Elysia (gastropod)

Elysia
A live individual of Elysia ornata, head end towards the left
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Superorder: Sacoglossa
Superfamily: Plakobranchoidea
Family: Plakobranchidae
Genus: Elysia
Risso, 1818
Type species
Notarchus timidus
Risso, 1818
Species

See text

Synonyms[1]
List
  • Actaeon Rang, 1829
  • Aplysiopterus Delle Chiaje, 1830
  • Checholysia Ortea, Caballer, Moro & Espinosa, 2005
  • Elysia (Elysia) Risso, 1818
  • Elysia (Elysiopterus) Pruvot-Fol, 1946
  • Elysia (Tridachia)
  • Elysiella Verrill, 1872
  • Elysiella Bergh, 1871
  • Elysiobranchus Pruvot-Fol, 1930
  • Hydropsyche Kelaart, 1858
  • Pattyclaya Ev. Marcus, 1982
  • Pterogasteron Pease, 1860
  • Rhyzobranchus Cantraine, 1835
  • Thallepus Swainson, 1840
  • Thridachia P. Fischer, 1883
  • Tridachia Deshayes, 1857
  • Tridachiella MacFarland, 1924

Elysia is a genus of sea slugs, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Plakobranchidae. These animals are colorful sea slugs, and they can superficially resemble nudibranchs, but are not very closely related to them. Instead they are sacoglossans, commonly known as sap-sucking slugs.[1]

Elysia sea slugs graze on algae and some species such as E. viridis and E. chlorotica hijack the chloroplasts for themselves. The chloroplasts end up lining the slug's digestive tract, enabling the slugs to survive solely by photosynthesis for several months at a time.This association is crucial for the development and maturing of the slug. Exactly how the slugs use the chloroplasts is unclear, as many of the proteins used by chloroplasts are encoded in the genome of the host cell. These proteins, numbering in the hundreds, are manufactured in the cell's nucleus, and then moved into the chloroplast, enabling it to survive.[2] There has been a study regarding a member of the genus Elysia (E. chloritica), which states that there is horizontal gene transfer when the slugs ingest the algae. The study postulates that upon the ingestion of the algae, to keep the chloroplasts alive, E. chloritica steals genes via horizontal gene transfer to make proteins that maintain the chloroplasts.[3] However, many[4][5][6] other studies could not replicate the findings in the study and the claims remain disputed. Young specimens of E. atroviridis and E. marginata became known for their ability to regenerate the whole body from a severed head. This autotomy expels internal parasites.[7]

This genus was previously sometimes considered to be in the family Stiligeridae, and was also previously placed in the family Elysiidae.

  1. ^ a b Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Elysia Risso, 1818. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137928 on 2010-12-14
  2. ^ "Will we ever… photosynthesise like plants?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-09-27.
  3. ^ Rumpho, Mary E.; Worful, Jared M.; Lee, Jungho; Kannan, Krishna; Tyler, Mary S.; Bhattacharya, Debashish; Moustafa, Ahmed; Manhart, James R. (18 November 2008). "Horizontal gene transfer of the algal nuclear gene psbO to the photosynthetic sea slug Elysia chlorotica". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (46): 17867–17871. doi:10.1073/pnas.0804968105. PMC 2584685. PMID 19004808.
  4. ^ "Chloroplast acquisition without gene transfer in photosynthetic sea slugs". Phys.org (Press release). National Institutes of Natural Sciences. 15 July 2021.
  5. ^ Maeda, Taro; Takahashi, Shunichi; Yoshida, Takao; Shimamura, Shigeru; Takaki, Yoshihiro; Nagai, Yukiko; Toyoda, Atsushi; Suzuki, Yutaka; Arimoto, Asuka; Ishii, Hisaki; Satoh, Nori; Nishiyama, Tomoaki; Hasebe, Mitsuyasu; Maruyama, Tadashi; Minagawa, Jun; Obokata, Junichi; Shigenobu, Shuji (27 April 2021). "Chloroplast acquisition without the gene transfer in kleptoplastic sea slugs, Plakobranchus ocellatus". eLife. 10. doi:10.7554/eLife.60176. PMC 8079154. PMID 33902812.
  6. ^ Bhattacharya, Debashish; Pelletreau, Karen N.; Price, Dana C.; Sarver, Kara E.; Rumpho, Mary E. (August 2013). "Genome Analysis of Elysia chlorotica Egg DNA Provides No Evidence for Horizontal Gene Transfer into the Germ Line of This Kleptoplastic Mollusc". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 30 (8): 1843–1852. doi:10.1093/molbev/mst084. PMC 3708498. PMID 23645554.
  7. ^ Baker, Harry (2021-03-08). "This sea slug can chop off its head and grow an entire new body, twice". Live Science. Retrieved 2021-03-09.