Insenerplastide

Insenerplastide is a hypothetical plastid-like organelle described in speculative biology and some science-fiction contexts as a discrete cellular compartment that integrates sensory input with central metabolism in photosynthetic organisms. The term combines plastid ancestry with an assumed capacity for signal transduction, enabling rapid coordination between environmental perception and metabolic output.

In proposed models, insenerplastide has a double membrane envelope and an internal membrane system resembling thylakoids, with remnants of plastid DNA and the capacity to store energy as starch or lipid droplets. It is imagined to harbor sensor proteins, redox-sensitive complexes, and signaling pathways at the organelle level, and to communicate with the host nucleus through retrograde signaling to adjust gene expression and metabolism.

Originating in speculative discussions of endosymbiosis and cellular signaling, insenerplastide is not supported by experimental evidence in real organisms. It is sometimes invoked to illustrate how sensory information could be directly coupled to energetic and biosynthetic decisions, or as a thought experiment in synthetic biology about creating integrated sensory-metabolic modules.

Related topics include plastid, endosymbiosis, retrograde signaling, synthetic biology, and speculative biology.