{"doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.020","title":"The V-type ATPase enhances photosynthesis in marine phytoplankton and further links phagocytosis to symbiogenesis","abstract":"Diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores are dominant groups of marine eukaryotic phytoplankton that are collectively responsible for the majority of primary production in the ocean. 1 These phytoplankton contain additional intracellular membranes around their chloroplasts, which are derived from ancestral engulfment of red microalgae by unicellular heterotrophic eukaryotes that led to secondary and tertiary endosymbiosis. 2 However, the selectable evolutionary advantage of these membranes and the physiological significance for extant phytoplankton remain poorly understood. Since intracellular digestive vacuoles are ubiquitously acidified by V-type H + -ATPase (VHA), 3 proton pumps were proposed to acidify the microenvironment around secondary chloroplasts to promote the dehydration of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) into CO 2 , thus enhancing photosynthesis. 4 , 5 We report that VHA is localized around the chloroplasts of centric diatoms and that VHA significantly contributes to their photosynthesis across a wide range of oceanic irradiances. Similar results in a pennate diatom, dinoflagellate, and coccolithophore, but not green or red microalgae, imply the co-option of phagocytic VHA activity into a carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) is common to secondary endosymbiotic phytoplankton. Furthermore, analogous mechanisms in extant photosymbiotic marine invertebrates 6 , 7 , 8 provide functional evidence for an adaptive advantage throughout the transition from endosymbiosis to symbiogenesis. Based on the contribution of diatoms to ocean biogeochemical cycles, VHA-mediated enhancement of photosynthesis contributes at least 3.5 Gtons of fixed carbon per year (or 7% of primary production in the ocean), providing an example of a symbiosis-derived evolutionary innovation with global environmental implications.","journal":"Current Biology","year":2023,"id":333887,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":22,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9588,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1061728,"name":"Ty Samo","orcid":"0000-0002-0548-4599","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577380,"name":"Raffaela M. Abbriano","orcid":"0000-0002-5754-5461","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1062258,"name":"Bethany Shimasaki","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1061729,"name":"María Vernet","orcid":"0000-0001-7534-5343","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":877404,"name":"Xavier Mayali","orcid":"0000-0002-2170-0773","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":877403,"name":"Peter Weber","orcid":"0000-0001-6022-6050","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1062259,"name":"B. Greg Mitchell","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":256528,"name":"Mark Hildebrand","orcid":"0000-0003-0964-6628","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1061730,"name":"Johan Decelle","orcid":"0000-0002-4343-8358","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":941157,"name":"Martín Tresguerres","orcid":"0000-0002-7090-9266","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1061727,"name":"Daniel P. Yee","orcid":"0000-0002-2085-5538","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":69,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:09:44.297718Z","pmid":"37263270","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}