Mergers and acquisitions: malaria and the great chloroplast heist.
The origin of the relict chloroplast recently identified in malarial parasites has been mysterious. Several new papers suggest that the parasites obtained their chloroplasts in an ancient endosymbiotic event that also created some major algal groups.
McFadden
G I
GI
Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 3052 Melbourne, Australia. g.mcfadden@botany.unimelb.edu.au
D000818:Animals; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000502:physiology*; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000502:physiology; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D059828:Plant Cells; D010965:Plasmodium malariae / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D013559:Symbiosis