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Phylogenomic evidence for a myxococcal contribution to the mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation. PLoS One 2011;6(7):e21989

Date

07/16/2011

Pubmed ID

21760940

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3131387

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0021989

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-79960054403 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   6 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The origin of eukaryotes remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Although it is clear that eukaryotic genomes are a chimeric combination of genes of eubacterial and archaebacterial ancestry, the specific ancestry of most eubacterial genes is still unknown. The growing availability of microbial genomes offers the possibility of analyzing the ancestry of eukaryotic genomes and testing previous hypotheses on their origins.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we have applied a phylogenomic analysis to investigate a possible contribution of the Myxococcales to the first eukaryotes. We conducted a conservative pipeline with homologous sequence searches against a genomic sampling of 40 eukaryotic and 357 prokaryotic genomes. The phylogenetic reconstruction showed that several eukaryotic proteins traced to Myxococcales. Most of these proteins were associated with mitochondrial lipid intermediate pathways, particularly enzymes generating reducing equivalents with pivotal roles in fatty acid β-oxidation metabolism. Our data suggest that myxococcal species with the ability to oxidize fatty acids transferred several genes to eubacteria that eventually gave rise to the mitochondrial ancestor. Later, the eukaryotic nucleocytoplasmic lineage acquired those metabolic genes through endosymbiotic gene transfer.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results support a prokaryotic origin, different from α-proteobacteria, for several mitochondrial genes. Our data reinforce a fluid prokaryotic chromosome model in which the mitochondrion appears to be an important entry point for myxococcal genes to enter eukaryotes.

Author List

Schlüter A, Ruiz-Trillo I, Pujol A

Author

Michael Edward Mitchell MD Chief, Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Acyl Coenzyme A
Eukaryota
Fatty Acids
Genomics
Metabolic Networks and Pathways
Mitochondria
Models, Biological
Myxococcales
Oxidation-Reduction
Phylogeny
Proteins