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JXB Advance Access originally published online on September 18, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(14):3975-3987; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp282
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

REVIEW-ARTICLE

Phagotrophy in the origins of photosynthesis in eukaryotes and as a complementary mode of nutrition in phototrophs: relation to Darwin's insectivorous plants

John A. Raven1,*, John Beardall2, Kevin J. Flynn3 and Stephen C. Maberly4

1Division of Plant Science, University of Dundee at SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK
2School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
3Department of Pure and Applied Ecology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
4Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4AP, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: j.a.raven{at}dundee.ac.uk

Darwin performed innovative observational and experimental work on the apparently paradoxical occurrence of carnivory in photosynthetic flowering plants. The nutritional use of particulate organic material which also supplies other elements is now known to be widespread in free-living algae as well as in organisms with endosymbiotic algae and with kleptoplastids. In addition to this direct nutritional role, phagotrophy, in the broad sense of internalization of photosynthetic organisms by a eukaryote, is essential for the occurrence of present-day endosymbiotic algae and kleptoplastid-containing protists, and was essential for the origin of plastids themselves. The endosymbiotic phenomena involving photosynthetic organisms clearly played a major role in combining genomes providing different metabolic functions, but, in our opinion, this does not demand a re-appraisal of evolution by natural selection. That the balance of physiological optimization for competition for resources and minimization of losses (e.g. through predation) is a fine one, and thus subject to a complex selective process, is illustrated by the diversity of mixotrophic strategies in extant phytoplankton.

Key words: Carnivorous plants, Darwin, endosymbiosis, gene transfer to nucleus, kleptoplasty, mixotrophy, oxygenic photosynthesis, phytoplankton, plastids

Received 22 June 2009; Revised 25 August 2009 Accepted 27 August 2009


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