The acquisition of photosynthesis through the endosymbiosis of chloroplasts has transformed eukaryotic life, as well as the geochemistry of the Earth. This process remains poorly understood, due to its antiquity in model organisms such as plants. 

Richard Dorrell (LCQB) and his collaborators are exploring the fundamental processes that accompany the recent endosymbiosis of dinoflagellates, a lineage of marine algae that support coral reefs but are also damaging tidal agents. 

Using transcriptomic and phylogenetic techniques, they discovered that dinoflagellates of the order Kareniaceae have acquired the same chloroplast several times over. This can be seen in the chloroplast genomes and plastid-addressed proteins of these species, which belong to several different lineages of the same algal group, the haptophytes. The article also examines the cellular and ecological principles that explain this repeated acquisition of photosynthesis.