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Secondary endosymbiosis has occurred several times and has given rise to extremely diverse groups of algae and other eukaryotes. Some organisms can take opportunistic advantage of a similar process, where they engulf an alga and use the products of its photosynthesis, but once the prey item dies (or is lost) the host returns to a free living state.
Pea aphids are commonly infested by parasitic wasps. Their secondary endosymbionts attack the infesting parasitoid wasp larvae promoting the survival of both the aphid host and its endosymbionts. The pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) contains at least three secondary endosymbionts, Hamiltonella defensa, Regiella insecticola, and Serratia symbiotica.
Secondary endosymbiosis results in the engulfment of an organism that has already performed primary endosymbiosis. Thus, four plasma membranes are formed. The first originating from the cyanobacteria, the second from the eukaryote that engulfed the cyanobacteria, and the third from the eukaryote who engulfed the primary endosymbiotic eukaryote. [11]
The chloroplast is surrounded by 4 membranes: 2 layers resulting from the primary, and 2 resulting from the secondary. When the nucleus of the algal endosymbiont remains, it's called a "nucleomorph". [1] Most tertiary endosymbiosis events end up with only the plastid retained.
The theory of endosymbiosis, as known as symbiogenesis, provides an explanation for the evolution of eukaryotic organisms. According to the theory of endosymbiosis for the origin of eukaryotic cells, scientists believe that eukaryotes originated from the relationship between two or more prokaryotic cells approximately 2.7 billion years ago.
[note 1] Unlike red and green algae, glaucophytes have never been involved in secondary endosymbiosis events. [10] The cells of the Archaeplastida typically lack centrioles and have mitochondria with flat cristae. They usually have a cell wall that contains cellulose, and food is stored in the form of starch. However, these characteristics are ...
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Chlorophyll b is an olive green pigment found only in the chloroplasts of plants, green algae, any secondary chloroplasts obtained through the secondary endosymbiosis of a green alga, and a few cyanobacteria. [12] It is the chlorophylls a and b together that make most plant and green algal chloroplasts green. [149]