Origins of Plastids looks at symbiosis and symbiogenesis as a mechanism of evolution. This theory of endosymbiotic evolution postulates that photosynthetic prokaryotes living as endosymbionts within eukaryotic cells gradually evolved into the organelle structures called chloroplasts. The theory is controversial but has been strongly advocated by Lynn Margulis. Based on a colloquium held at the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory of the University of California at Davis, Origins of Plastids reviews recent data on this most basic problem in plant evolution. In it, leading researchers in the field apply the theory of endosymbiotic evolution to plastid origins, producing an important new reference work for both professionals and graduates interested in the origins of life, the origins of the eukaryotic cell and its organelles, and the evolution of the higher plants in general. Origins of Plastids represents the state-of-the-art in its field. It should find a place on the bookshelves of people interested in microbiology, plant science, phycology, cell biology, and evolution.

Introductory remarks.- Chloroplast-retention in ciliated protozoa.- Green ciliates: principles of symbiosis formation between autotrophic and heterotrophic partners.- Insights into symbiotic acquisition of organelles from studies of the green hydra.- From prey via endosymbiont to plastid: comparative studies in dinoflagellates.- Membranes and plastid origins.- The evolution of algal chloroplasts.- Prochlorophyte evolution and the origin of chloroplasts: morphological and molecular evidence.- Comparison of sequences and organization of photosynthesis genes among the prochlorophyte Prochlorothrix hollandica, cyanobacteria, and chloroplasts.- Molecular phylogeny of oxygenic phototrophic cells and organelles from small-subunit ribosomal RNA sequences.- Molecular phylogeny of algal plastids: a brief review of host/endosymbiont genome development based on sequence comparisons.- Phylogenetic origin of the plastids.- Origin and evolution of plastids from chlorophyll-a+c-containing algae: suggested ancestral relationships to red and green algal plastids.- Probable evolutionary history of cryptomonad algae.- The origin, losses and gains of chloroplasts.- Plastid phylogeny and the problem of biased base composition.- Envoi.- Gene Glossary.- Author Index.- Taxonomic Index.- General Index.