First chemical study of the sacoglossan Elysia patagonica: Isolation of a γ-pyrone propionate hydroperoxide

Abstract

Sacoglossan sea slugs are a group of opisthobranch herbivorous mollusks primarily associated to siphonalean green algae. They appear to be one of the few metazoan groups to retain functional chloroplasts as intracellular organelles. Species belonging to Elysia genus are characterized for large parapodia, which contain the digestive diverticulum where the chloroplasts sequestered are photosynthetically functional for many days to months, useful for the survival of the mollusks. Elysia patagonica Muniain and Ortea (1997) (Plakobranchidae, Sacoglossa) is the first sacoglossan described from Argentina, and intact chloroplasts of the green algae Bryopsis cf. plumosa (Chlorophyta: Bryopsidales) were observed in the digestive cells of benthic adults starved for many days