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Mesodinium rubrum
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<p><i>Mesodinium rubrum</i> (or <i>Myrionecta rubra</i>) is a species of <a href="/facts/Ciliate/UREaeHEc">ciliates</a>. It constitutes a <a href="/facts/Plankton/WGo3LU9T">plankton</a> 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. </p><p>Unlike typical protozoans, <i>M. rubrum</i> can make its own nutrition by <a href="/facts/Photosynthesis/TMV7w693">photosynthesis</a>. The unusual <a href="/facts/Autotrophic/UDc8bzqD">autotrophic</a> property was discovered in 2006 when genetic sequencing revealed that the photosynthesising organelles, <a href="/facts/Plastids/INesmXK7">plastids</a>, were derived from the ciliate's principal food, the autotrophic algae called <a href="/facts/Cryptomonads/4r1SHPtg">cryptomonads</a> (or cryptophytes), which contain <a href="/facts/Endosymbiont/eWvSS8ID">endosymbiont</a> <a href="/facts/Red_algae/jCeIc7Kq">red algae</a> whose internal <a href="/facts/Chloroplast/fo8U3yTx">chloroplasts</a> (evolved via <a href="/facts/Symbiogenesis/2gHlgj4j">endosymbiosis</a> with <a href="/facts/Cyanobacteria/S8bKxIU9">cyanobacteria</a>) indirectly enable <i>M. rubrum</i> to photosynthesize using <a href="/facts/Sunlight/WPkJRC7s">sunlight</a>. The ciliate is thus both autotrophic and <a href="/facts/Heterotrophic/wtzlgBtz">heterotrophic</a> at the same time. This also indicates that it is an example of multiple-stage <a href="/facts/Endosymbiosis/eWvSS8ID">endosymbiosis</a> in the form of <a href="/facts/Kleptoplasty/1TBD2Bdz">kleptoplasty</a>. Moreover, these “stolen” plastids can be further transferred to additional hosts, as seen in the case of predation of <i>M. rubrum</i> by dinoflagellate planktons of the genus <i>Dinophysis</i>. </p><p>In 2009, a new species of <a href="/facts/Gram-negative_bacteria/S1PbVtp4">Gram-negative bacteria</a> called <i>Maritalea myrionectae</i> was discovered from a <a href="/facts/Cell_culture/7Qhu13D9">cell culture</a> of <i>M. rubrum</i>. </p>