Zoochlorella

Zoochlorella is a nomen rejiciendum for a genus of green algae assigned to Chlorella[1]. The term Zoochlorella (plural zoochlorellae) is sometimes used to refer to any green algae that lives symbiotically within the body of a freshwater or marine invertebrate or protozoan. Zoochlorellae and zooxanthellae may both be found in the Pacific coast sea anemones Anthopleura elegantissima and Anthopleura xanthogrammica.

Zoochlorella
Scientific classification
Phylum:	Chlorophyta
Class:	Trebouxiophyceae
Order:	Chlorellales
Family:	Chlorellaceae
Genus:	Zoochlorella K.Brandt, 1881, nom. rejic.

The analogy between Zoochlorella and chloroplasts has been 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).[2]

Zoochlorellae are responsible for the greenish colour of sea anemone tentacles.

Anthopleura xanthogrammica gains its green colour from Zoochlorella

Notes

1. Compère, Pierre (November 1999). "Report of the Committee for Algae: 6". Taxon. 48 (1): 135–136. JSTOR 1224630.
2. 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

References

• Guiry, M.D.; Guiry, G.M. (2008). "Zoochlorella". AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. Retrieved 2009-02-21.