Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Elysia Chlorotica, Protein Folding, Homochirality
11 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Elysia chlorotica is a sea slug that is photosynthetic and is invertebrate. It is found in the eastern seaboard and is primarily aquatic based, although there is potential for other factors to play a role. The animal is brown with red pigment segments and has no chloroplasts in the early stages of life. It feeds on algae early in life, and then eventually turns green from all the chlorophyll that is has consumed over time. Elysia will become the model for most lectures. Elysia has a very interesting relationship with its food in that they are extremely specialized. There is one food source for one animal. The animal is a eukaryote, and all components are digested except the chloroplasts. The more chloroplasts that are retained, the more green elysia will become. Kleptoplasty, which means literally, stolen plastid. in this case, the plastid is the fully chloroplast.
