Photosymbiosis

Photosymbiosis is a type of symbiosis where one of the organisms is capable of photosynthesis.[1]

Examples of photosymbiosis
Lichen Variospora thallincola growing on rock
A ciliate, Paramecium bursaria, with green zoochlorellae living inside it endosymbiotically
Mussa angulosa coral
Southern giant clam Tridacna derasa
Upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana

Examples of photosymbiotic relationships include those in lichens, plankton, ciliates, and many marine organisms including corals, fire corals, giant clams, and jellyfish.[2][3][4]

Photosymbiosis is important in the development, maintenance, and evolution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, for example in biological soil crusts, soil formation, supporting highly diverse microbial populations in soil and water, and coral reef growth and maintenance.[5][6]

Plagiomnium affine moss cells with visible chloroplasts—a type of plastid.

When one organism lives within another symbiotically it’s called endosymbiosis. Photosymbiotic relationships where microalgae and/or cyanobacteria live within a heterotrophic host organism, are believed to have led to eukaryotes acquiring photosynthesis and to the evolution of plants.[7][8]

  1. ^ "photosymbiosis". Oxford Reference.
  2. ^ Gault J, Bentlage B, Huang D, Kerr A (2021). "Lineage-specific variation in the evolutionary stability of coral photosymbiosis". Science Advances. 7 (39): eabh4243. Bibcode:2021SciA....7.4243G. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abh4243. PMC 8457658. PMID 34550731.
  3. ^ Decelle, Johan (2013). "New perspectives on the functioning and evolution of photosymbiosis in plankton: Mutualism or parasitism?". Communicative & Integrative Biology. 6 (4): e24560. doi:10.4161/cib.24560. PMC 3742057. PMID 23986805.
  4. ^ Enrique-Navarro A, Huertas E, Flander-Putrle V, Bartual A, Navarro G, Ruiz J, Malej A, Prieto L. "Living Inside a Jellyfish: The Symbiosis Case Study of Host-Specialized Dinoflagellates, "Zooxanthellae", and the Scyphozoan Cotylorhiza tuberculata". Retrieved 2023-06-18.
  5. ^ Gault J, Bentlage B, Huang D, Kerr A (2021). "Lineage-specific variation in the evolutionary stability of coral photosymbiosis". Science Advances. 7 (39): eabh4243. Bibcode:2021SciA....7.4243G. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abh4243. PMC 8457658. PMID 34550731.
  6. ^ Stanley Jr G, Lipps J (2011). "Photosymbiosis: The Driving Force for Reef Success and Failure". The Paleontological Society Papers. 17: 33–59. doi:10.1017/S1089332600002436. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
  7. ^ Decelle, Johan (2013). "New perspectives on the functioning and evolution of photosymbiosis in plankton: Mutualism or parasitism?". Communicative & Integrative Biology. 6 (4): e24560. doi:10.4161/cib.24560. PMC 3742057. PMID 23986805.
  8. ^ Basic Biology (18 March 2016). "Bacteria".