Reconstructing the history of plastid acquisition and loss in the alveolate protists is a difficult problem because our knowledge of the distribution of plastids in extant lineages is incomplete due to the possible presence of cryptic, nonphotosynthetic plastids in several lineages. The discovery of the apicoplast in apicomplexan parasites has drawn attention to this problem and, more specifically, to the question of whether many other nonphotosynthetic lineages also contain cryptic plastids or…
Recent Comments