Zoochlorella

Zoochlorella
Scientific classification (obsolete)
(unranked):	Viridiplantae
Division:	Chlorophyta
Class:	Trebouxiophyceae
Order:	Chlorellales
Family:	Chlorellaceae
Genus:	Zoochlorella K.Brandt , 1881, nom. rejic.

Zoochlorella (pl.: zoochlorellae) is a coloquial term for any green algae that lives symbiotically within the body of an aquatic invertebrate animal or a protozoan.^[1]

Classification

Zoochlorellae are various genera belonging to the classes

• Zoochlorella conductrix K. Brandt → Micractinium Fresen.
• Zoochlorella parasitica K. Brandt → Choricystis (Skuja) Fott.

Origin

The analogy between zoochlorellae and chloroplasts was used by the botanist Konstantin Mereschkowski in 1905 to argue about the symbiotic origin of chloroplasts (then called 'chromatophores', a term used for completely different structures today).^[3]

Occurrence

In animals

Zoochlorellae are responsible for the

In the centrohelid Acanthocystis turfacea lives a unique zoochlorella species known as Chlorella heliozoae.^[1]

protists

containing zoochlorellae

References

1. ^
   doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02333.x
   .
2. JSTOR 1224630
   .
3. ^ Martin W, and Kowallik, K V. 1999, Annotated English translation of Mereschkowsky's 1905 paper 'Über Nature und Ursprung der Chromatophoren im Pflanzenreich'. Eur. J. Phycol., 34: 287-295. Free access to the article Archived March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
4. doi:10.1016/j.protis.2014.01.002
   .

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