kleptoplasty

traitmech:000629 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A physiological phenotype in which a microbial organism selectively retains plastids acquired from algal prey after discarding or digesting other prey components.

Trait evidence (4)

DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-28455-1
Kleptoplasty is defined as the process in which a cell sequesters algal chloroplasts while discarding or digesting other algal components

PMID:29973634, PMC6031614. Direct Introduction definition, not an abstract quote or experimental replication. The Introduction also includes aphotic cases. Only the scientific Abstract and Introduction were read for this terminology claim; no canonical example or mechanism is imported from the paper's experiments.
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2220100120
Rapaza viridis has only kleptoplasts derived from a specific strain of green alga, Tetraselmis sp., but no canonical plastids

PMID:36927158, PMC10041101. Contiguous scientific-abstract span, not the separate Significance section. Main text and actual Figures 1 and 3 were inspected: prey plastids persist after other material is expelled, and bicarbonate labeling supports photosynthetic carbon use. Plastid subdivision and partition do not establish plastid growth or biogenesis. Supplements were not visually audited. Predicted targeting sequences and transporters are not native protein-function validation.
DOI:10.1038/s41467-026-70516-x
In the flagellate, Rapaza viridis, nuclear-encoded proteins support photosynthesis in transient, xenogeneic chloroplasts (kleptoplasts) acquired from the green alga Tetraselmis sp.

PMID:41876518, PMC13013580. Scientific Abstract (Abs1), not the editorial summary (Abs2). Results, Discussion, relevant culture/perturbation/imaging/physiology Methods, actual Figures 3-5 and Supplementary Figure 4 were inspected. Knockout and knockdown support host-protein contributions in this system. RbcS-like localization uses engineered HA tagging; Rca-like localization uses native-protein antibodies. This is a separate study of the same strain, not independent taxon replication.
DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.14433
These results indicate that the photosynthetic pathways in N. labradorica are not functional.

PMID:30277305. Direct Europe PMC scientific abstract, published online in 2018 and in the 2019 print issue. The authors call Nonionellina labradorica kleptoplastidic despite absent carbon fixation and oxygen production under their assayed conditions. This supports retaining a photosynthesis-independent definition, not universal functional absence. Full text and figures were not accessed; no canonical example or nitrogen/sulfur mechanism is imported. Host versus plastid assimilation remains unresolved.

Provenance

Identifier source: TraitMech local identifier
Definition source: DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-28455-1

Parent traits (1)

phenotype METPO:1000059

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Canonical examples (1)

Organisms cited as exemplars of this trait. Taxon ids are NCBITaxon and link out to the NCBI record.

Rapaza viridis NCBITaxon:1112050 DOI:10.1073/pnas.2220100120 NIES-4477, fed Tetraselmis sp. NIES-4478, is the qualified example; do not generalize prey compatibility to every isolate. NCBI ESearch and EFetch resolve the species name and identifier on 2026-10-05. Natural tide-pool isolation at Pachena Beach in 2010 is documented in the original Methods at https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-12-29. That paper's canonical-plastid interpretation was superseded by the 2023 study. Collection provenance at https://mcc.nbrp.jp/strainList.do?strainId=4475&strainNumberEn=NIES-4477 conflicts with the primary papers on the ATCC alias; retain NIES-4477 without silently equating the conflicting aliases.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (3)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Keep plastid retention distinct from uptake and acquired photosynthesis.

CURATION TODO OPEN kleptoplasty-retention-and-hierarchy-scope · raised by codex · 2026-10-05

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

This is an organism-level physiological trait, not an organelle or sequence feature. Whole living algal endosymbionts are not equivalent to extracted plastids. Phagocytosis traitmech:000627 describes uptake; phagotrophy traitmech:000628 requires nutrient assimilation. Neither is exact. Phototrophic METPO:1000660 and mixotrophic METPO:1000652 prescribe energy/carbon use that the generic retention definition does not require. The trophic_type Falcon report attributes an acquired-photosynthesis framing to Schenone 2024; that narrower usage is preserved as research provenance, not generalized to all kleptoplasty. Retain phenotype METPO:1000059 pending a closer organelle-acquisition hierarchy. No fixed retention duration, plastid replication, complete nutritional dependence or loss of every other prey organelle is asserted. No unverified synonym or ontology xref is added.

Resolve the discordant ATCC alias with the collection.

CURATION TODO OPEN kleptoplasty-rapaza-strain-alias-conflict · raised by codex · 2026-10-05

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

The NIES-4477 collection entry lists ATCC PRA-361, whereas the 2012 and 2023 primary Methods assign PRA-360 to Rapaza and PRA-361 to its Tetraselmis prey. The 2023 Methods document redeposition as NIES-4477 and NIES-4478. Use the NIES host identifier and primary provenance; do not silently reconcile the conflict or treat collection metadata as independent trait evidence. Collection URL is preserved in the canonical note.

Ground native protein contributions without inventing an import apparatus.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN kleptoplasty-protein-import-mechanism · raised by codex · 2026-10-05

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

The 2026 study supplies native functional perturbations beyond the 2023 sequence predictions, but this curation has not resolved taxon-paired protein accessions or a complete import mechanism. Predicted complexes, phase separation and pyrenoid remodeling must remain distinct from demonstrated localization and physiology. A targeting reporter does not identify a universal translocon. No protein-resolved causal graph is asserted.

Curation history

2026-10-05T22:48:00Z · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex
Added kleptoplasty with four DOI-backed snippets and a natural, strain-qualified Rapaza example. Ignored-and-hidden searches and pinned METPO review found no exact record. Reserved METPO:1058200 in v505. Kept plastid retention independent of photosynthesis, preserved the collection alias conflict and deferred unresolved protein groundings without inferring a causal graph.