Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString Hamburger and Buddenbrock, 1929

rdf:langString Mesodinium

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum

rdf:langString M. rubrum

rdf:langString Cyclotrichium meunieri (Powers, 1932)

rdf:langString Halteria rubra (Lohmann, 1908)

rdf:langString Mesodinium pulex( Bakker, 1966)

rdf:langString Myrionecta rubra (Lohmann, 1908)

rdf:langString Mesodinium rubrum (or Myrionecta rubra) is a species of ciliates. It constitutes a plankton community and is found throughout the year, most abundantly in spring and fall, in coastal areas. Although discovered in 1908, its scientific importance came into light in the late 1960s when it attracted scientists by the recurrent red colouration it caused by forming massive blooms, that cause red tides in the oceans. Unlike typical protozoans, M. rubrum can make its own nutrition by photosynthesis. The unusual autotrophic property was discovered in 2006 when genetic sequencing revealed that the photosynthesising organelles, plastids, were derived from the principal food of the ciliate, the photosynthetic algae called cryptomonads (or cryptophytes). It is, thus, both autotrophic and heterotrophic. This nature also indicates that it is an example of endosymbiosis, supporting the endosymbiotic theory, as well as the concept of stealing of cell organelles called kleptoplastidy. Moreover, M. rubrum represents additional endosymbiosis by transferring its plastids to its predators, the dinoflagellate planktons belonging to the genus Dinophysis. In 2009, a new species of Gram-negative bacteria called Maritalea myrionectae was discovered from a cell culture of M. rubrum.