Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains one of the most contentious puzzles in modern biology. Recent studies have provided support for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell from within the archaeal domain of life, but the identity and nature of the putative archaeal ancestor remain a subject...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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2015
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444528/ |
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pubmed-4444528 |
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pubmed-44445282015-11-14 Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes Spang, Anja Saw, Jimmy H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Katarzyna Martijn, Joran Lind, Anders E. van Eijk, Roel Schleper, Christa Guy, Lionel Ettema, Thijs J. G. Article The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains one of the most contentious puzzles in modern biology. Recent studies have provided support for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell from within the archaeal domain of life, but the identity and nature of the putative archaeal ancestor remain a subject of debate. Here we describe the discovery of ‘Lokiarchaeota’, a novel candidate archaeal phylum, which forms a monophyletic group with eukaryotes in phylogenomic analyses, and whose genomes encode an expanded repertoire of eukaryotic signature proteins that are suggestive of sophisticated membrane remodelling capabilities. Our results provide strong support for hypotheses in which the eukaryotic host evolved from a bona fide archaeon, and demonstrate that many components that underpin eukaryote-specific features were already present in that ancestor. This provided the host with a rich genomic ‘starter-kit’ to support the increase in the cellular and genomic complexity that is characteristic of eukaryotes. 2015-05-06 2015-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4444528/ /pubmed/25945739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14447 Text en Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints (http://www.nature.com/reprints) . Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms |
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Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
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NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Spang, Anja Saw, Jimmy H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Katarzyna Martijn, Joran Lind, Anders E. van Eijk, Roel Schleper, Christa Guy, Lionel Ettema, Thijs J. G. |
| spellingShingle |
Spang, Anja Saw, Jimmy H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Katarzyna Martijn, Joran Lind, Anders E. van Eijk, Roel Schleper, Christa Guy, Lionel Ettema, Thijs J. G. Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| author_facet |
Spang, Anja Saw, Jimmy H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Katarzyna Martijn, Joran Lind, Anders E. van Eijk, Roel Schleper, Christa Guy, Lionel Ettema, Thijs J. G. |
| author_sort |
Spang, Anja |
| title |
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| title_short |
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| title_full |
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| title_fullStr |
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| title_sort |
complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes |
| description |
The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains one of the most contentious puzzles in modern biology. Recent studies have provided support for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell from within the archaeal domain of life, but the identity and nature of the putative archaeal ancestor remain a subject of debate. Here we describe the discovery of ‘Lokiarchaeota’, a novel candidate archaeal phylum, which forms a monophyletic group with eukaryotes in phylogenomic analyses, and whose genomes encode an expanded repertoire of eukaryotic signature proteins that are suggestive of sophisticated membrane remodelling capabilities. Our results provide strong support for hypotheses in which the eukaryotic host evolved from a bona fide archaeon, and demonstrate that many components that underpin eukaryote-specific features were already present in that ancestor. This provided the host with a rich genomic ‘starter-kit’ to support the increase in the cellular and genomic complexity that is characteristic of eukaryotes. |
| publishDate |
2015 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444528/ |
| _version_ |
1613227890898370560 |