Retention of blue‐green cryptophyte organelles by <i>Mesodinium rubrum</i> and their effects on photophysiology and growth

As chloroplast-stealing or "kleptoplastidic" lineages become more reliant on stolen machinery, they also tend to become more specialized on the prey from which they acquire this machinery. For example, the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum obtains > 95% of its carbon from photosynthesis, and specializes on plastids from the Teleaulax clade of cryptophytes. However, M. rubrum is sometimes observed in nature containing plastids from other cryptophyte species. Here, we report on substantial ingestion of the blue-green cryptophyte Hemiselmis pacifica by M. rubrum, leading to organelle retention and transient increases in M. rubrum's growth rate. However, microscopy data suggest that H. pacifica organelles do not experience the same rearrangement and integration as Teleaulax amphioxeia's. We measured M. rubrum's functional response, quantified the magnitude and duration of growth benefits, and estimated kleptoplastid photosynthetic rates. Our results suggest that a lack of discrimination between H. pacifica and the preferred prey T. amphioxeia (perhaps due to similarities in cryptophyte size and swimming behavior) may result in H. pacifica ingestion Thus, while blue-green cryptophytes may represent a negligible prey source in natural environments, they may help M. rubrum survive when Teleaulax are unavailable. Furthermore, these results represent a useful tool for manipulating M. rubrum's cell biology and photophysiology.