<p>  </p> <p><em>The Necessary Biography of Elysia Martinez-Smith by Ezra Speckman </em>is the story of – as the title indicates – Elysia Martinez-Smith, a twentysomething writer, podcaster, and self-made media mogul. Told in chronological, protracted scenes, the biography follows her from her childhood growing up in Chicago’s north-shore suburbs; through her college years as an on-campus student leader at nearby Northwestern University; through her work as a blogger for the Trump-era feminist outlet <em>SmileLess.org</em>; culminating with her ascent to thought leader, content creator, and founder of her own website, the progressive-minded news collective Beecher Media Network. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The “biography” is framed as a found text: Ezra Speckman, the work’s author and a former friend of Martinez-Smith’s, left the work unfinished; as such, it is presented to the reader as containing his notes and marginalia. Through these notes, inconsistencies in Martinez-Smith’s character – and Speckman’s motivations – emerge. </p>

The sacoglossan sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, feeds upon and sequesters plastids from the heterokont alga, Vaucheria litorea, and maintains the metabolically active organelles for up to nine months under starvation conditions while utilizing the photosynthate to survive and reproduce. The photosynthetic pigment, chlorophyll a (Chla), is found in all oxygenic photosynthetic organisms and is responsible for capturing photons of light and converting them into chemical energy. Chlorophyll and its associated proteins involved in the light capturing process are subject to photo oxidative damage and must be continually replaced for ongoing photosynthesis to continue; however, genes encoding these proteins are present in the algal nucleus, presenting a conundrum for sustained plastid photosynthetic activity outside the algal cell. One possibility is that Chla is synthesized by the E. chlorotica-kleptoplast association, due to transfer of algal nuclear genes to the sea slug genome. For this study, molecular and biochemical techniques were employed to determine if Chla is synthesized by the animal. Using algal transcriptome sequences for primer design and amplification of target DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we have identified and sequenced three algal nuclear-encoded gene fragments that correspond to enzymes in the chlorophyll synthesis pathway and one enzyme in the porphyrin synthesis pathway in adult slug and veliger larvae. Sequences from these genes were nearly identical to those present in the alga. Furthermore, these genes are functional; incubation of slugs with radiolabeled 5-aminolevulinic acid (14C-5-ALA), a precursor of chlorophyll biosynthesis, resulted in production of 14C-labeled chlorophyll, as assayed and identified via HPLC resolution of extracts from slugs. In addition, Chla synthesis in the animal occurs for at least six months under starvation conditions. The discovery of chlorophyll synthesis in E. chlorotica is the first animal known to synthesize Chla; moreover, this finding helps elucidate how ongoing photosynthesis can occur in the sea slug after many months in the absence of its algal food.