Paulinella chromatophora – rethinking the transition from endosymbiont to organelle

Eukaryotes co-opted photosynthetic carbon fixation from prokaryotes by engulfing a cyanobacterium and stably integrating it as a photosynthetic organelle (plastid) in a process known as primary endosymbiosis. The sheer complexity of interactions between a plastid and the surrounding cell that started to evolve over 1 billion years ago, make it challenging to reconstruct intermediate steps in organelle evolution by studying extant plastids....