Meeting Abstract

51.4  Jan. 6  Functional algal nuclear genes are present in a sea slug genome–horizontal gene transfer demonstrated. PIERCE, S. K. **; CURTIS, N. E.; SCHWARTZ, J. A; MASSEY, S. E.; University of South Florida, Tampa pierce@cas.usf.edu

The digestive cells of the sacoglossan sea slug, Elysia chlorotica (Gould), harbor intracellular, symbiotic chloroplasts captured from the alga, Vaucheria litorea, during feeding. Several chloroplast proteins, including some that are nuclear-encoded such as FCP, LHC 1 and LHC 2, are synthesized while the V. litorea plastids reside in the host cytoplasm, for as long as 9 months. Using PCR, we have identified the nucleotide sequences for fcp, Lhcv 1 and Lhvc 2 in genomic DNA and mRNA from adult slugs, and in genomic DNA from pre-hatched veliger larvae. These results show that the algal nuclear genes are present in the animal cell, are transcribed and are transmitted to the offspring. This is the first demonstration of the natural transfer of functional, inheritable genes between multicellular organisms. (Supported by NSF #IBN 0315227)