Editing Stramenopile (section)

=== Plastids ===

Many stramenopiles have [[plastid]]s which enable them to [[photosynthesis]]e, using light to [[autotroph|make their own food]]. Those plastids are coloured off-green, orange, golden or brown because of the presence of [[chlorophyll a]], [[chlorophyll c]], and [[fucoxanthin]]. This form of plastid is called a stramenochrome or [[chromoplast]].{{efn|They are not called chloroplasts, the most common form of photosynthetic plastid. If used narrowly, a chloroplast is a plastid which contains chlorophyll B, as in [[green algae]], some [[euglenid]]s, and the [[land plants]].}}  The most significant autotrophic stramenopiles are the [[brown algae]] (wracks and many other seaweeds), and the [[diatom]]s. The latter are among the most significant primary producers in marine and freshwater ecosystems.<ref name="Leipe Wainright Gunderson Porter 1994">{{cite journal |last1=Leipe |first1=D. D. |last2=Wainright |first2=P. O. |last3=Gunderson |first3=J. H. |last4=Porter |first4=D. |last5=Patterson |first5=D. J. |last6=Valois |first6=F. |last7=Himmerich |first7=S. |last8=Sogin |first8=M. L. |display-authors=3 |title=The stramenopiles from a molecular perspective: 16S-like rRNA sequences from Labyrinthuloides minuta and Cafeteria roenbergensis |journal=Phycologia |volume=33 |issue=5 |year=1994 |doi=10.2216/i0031-8884-33-5-369.1 |pages=369–377}}</ref> Most molecular analyses suggest that the most basal stramenopiles lacked plastids and were accordingly colourless [[heterotroph]]s, feeding on other organisms. This implies that the stramenopiles arose as heterotrophs, diversified, and then some of them acquired chromoplasts. Some lineages (such as the [[axodine]] lineage that included the chromophytic [[pedinellid]]s, colourless ciliophryids, and colourless actinophryid heliozoa) have secondarily reverted to heterotrophy.<ref name="Leyland Leu Boussiba 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Leyland |first1=Ben |last2=Leu |first2=Stefan |last3=Boussiba |first3=Sammy |title=Are Thraustochytrids algae? |journal=Fungal Biology |volume=121 |issue=10 |year=2017 |doi=10.1016/j.funbio.2017.07.006 |pages=835–840|pmid=28889907 }}</ref><ref name="Derelle López-García Timpano Moreira 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Derelle |first1=Romain |last2=López-García |first2=Purificación |last3=Timpano |first3=Hélène |last4=Moreira |first4=David |title=A Phylogenomic Framework to Study the Diversity and Evolution of Stramenopiles (=Heterokonts) |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=33 |issue=11 |date=10 August 2016 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msw168 |pages=2890–2898|pmid=27512113 |pmc=5482393 }}</ref>