Microbiome characterization of the sea slugs Elysia viridis and Placida dendritica: insights into potential roles in kleptoplasty [PDF]
BMC MicrobiologyBackground Kleptoplasty is the process by which functional chloroplasts from algae food sources are sequestered and retained by a host organism. Some sacoglossan sea slugs display this ability, enabling them to survive extended periods of food shortage ...
Patrícia Martins +2 more
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Origin and significance of two pairs of head tentacles in the radiation of euthyneuran sea slugs and land snails [PDF]
Scientific Reports, 2021 The gastropod infraclass Euthyneura comprises at least 30,000 species of snails and slugs, including nudibranch sea slugs, sea hares and garden snails, that flourish in various environments on earth.
Bastian Brenzinger +2 more
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Diversity and behavior of sea slugs (Heterobranchia) in the rocky tide pools of Conero Riviera (western Adriatic Sea) [PDF]
The European Zoological Journal, 2022 Rocky tide pools are transition environments whose communities are affected by sudden temperature, salinity and nutrient fluctuations. Furthermore, these environments are exposed to multiple stressors and can be easily altered by human trampling.
A. Riccardi +3 more
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A New Contribution on the Sea Slug (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) Fauna of the Ustica Island Marine Protected Area (Lower Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean) [PDF]
BiologyUstica is a Sicilian island for which most of the information available on the informal group of sea slugs comes from old and non-specific studies. Consequently, the aim of this study is to provide an updated list of the sea slugs of the Ustica Island ...
Andrea Lombardo +3 more
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Transcriptomics provides a robust framework for the relationships of the major clades of cladobranch sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia), but fails to resolve the position of the enigmatic genus Embletonia [PDF]
BMC Ecology and Evolution, 2021 Background The soft-bodied cladobranch sea slugs represent roughly half of the biodiversity of marine nudibranch molluscs on the planet. Despite their global distribution from shallow waters to the deep sea, from tropical into polar seas, and their ...
Dario Karmeinski +7 more
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A sea slug’s guide to plastid symbiosis
Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae, 2014 Some 140 years ago sea slugs that contained chlorophyll-pigmented granules similar to those of plants were described. While we now understand that these “green granules” are plastids the slugs sequester from siphonaceous algae upon which they feed ...
Jan de Vries +3 more
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Observations on the Benthic Heterobranch “Sea Slugs” (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Lampedusa, the Southernmost Island of Italy (MPA Isole Pelagie) [PDF]
Journal of Marine Science and EngineeringThanks to their striking shapes and colors, heterobranch “sea slugs” are probably the most sought-after group of marine critters by scuba divers around the world.
Andrea Lombardo, Giuliana Marletta
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Laboratory Rearing of the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia crispata (Gastropoda, Sacoglossa): Implications for the Study of Kleptoplasty and Species Conservation [PDF]
BiologySome Sacoglossa sea slugs are capable of stealing and maintaining functional intracellular chloroplasts—kleptoplasts—from their macroalgal prey for periods of up to several months, a process known as kleptoplasty. Although the cultivation of these marine
Paulo Cartaxana +5 more
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Ultraviolet screening by slug tissue and tight packing of plastids protect photosynthetic sea slugs from photoinhibition. [PDF]
Photosynth Res, 2022 One of the main mysteries regarding photosynthetic sea slugs is how the slug plastids handle photoinhibition, the constant light-induced damage to Photosystem II of photosynthesis.
Havurinne V +4 more
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Sea Slugs—“Rare in Space and Time”—But Not Always
Diversity, 2020 The term “rare in space and time” is often used to typify the spatial and temporal patterns of occurrence of heterobranch sea slugs. However, “rare” in this context has not been clearly defined.
Julie Schubert, Stephen D. A. Smith
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