Converting
            <i>Escherichia coli</i>
            into an archaebacterium with a hybrid heterochiral membrane

Caforio, Antonella; Siliakus, Melvin; Exterkate, Marten; Jain, Shubham; Jumde, Varsha R.; Andringa, Ruben L. H.; Kengen, Servé W. M.; Minnaard, Adriaan J.; Driessen, Arnold J.M.; Oost, John van der

doi:10.1073/pnas.1721604115

Cited by 77 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…Further, and building on previous results showing that the archaeal lipid pathway can be successfully expressed in recombinant bacteria, an Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) strain was recently engineered to contain the full set of archaeal lipid‐making genes . Not only did the chimeric bacteria successfully synthesize the archaeal lipids, but the heterotypic membranes actually proved advantageous under a number of environmental‐stress conditions.…”

Section: Mixed Archaeal–bacterial Lipid Membranes Are Viable In the Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, membranes built with archaeal‐like lipids remain impermeable and liquid‐crystalline at the entire range of temperatures of life . As results from the laboratory suggest, such an advantage provided by archaeal lipids may suffice as an explanation for their presence in some bacteria (Figure A).…”

Section: Membrane Proteins As Drivers Of the Lipid Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is not easy to envision what kinds of selective pressures could have made LUCA's ancestors benefit from developing a second full set of lipids after already having a perfectly functional first one, considering that almost no organism known at present seems to experience such pressures. And this only for all archaea to selectively lose one type while almost all bacteria lost the other, despite the mix being stable and in some cases even advantageous …”

Section: A Luca With Both Sets Of Lipids Presents a Challenging Evolumentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why the Lipid Divide? Membrane Proteins as Drivers of the Split between the Lipids of the Three Domains of Life

Sojo

2019

BioEssays

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Recent results from engineered and natural samples show that the starkly different lipids of archaea and bacteria can form stable hybrid membranes. But if the two types can mix, why don't they? That is, why do most bacteria and all eukaryotes have only typically bacterial lipids, and archaea archaeal lipids? It is suggested here that the reason may lie on the other main component of cellular membranes: membrane proteins, and their close adaptation to the lipids. Archaeal lipids in modern bacteria could suggest that the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) had both lipid types. However, this would imply a rather elaborate evolutionary scenario, while negating simpler alternatives. In light of widespread horizontal gene transfer across the prokaryotic domains, hybrid membranes reveal that the lipid divide did not just occur once at the divergence of archaea and bacteria from LUCA. Instead, it continues to occur actively to this day. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/TdKjxoDAtsg.

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Section: Mixed Archaeal–bacterial Lipid Membranes Are Viable In the Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Membrane Proteins As Drivers Of the Lipid Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Luca With Both Sets Of Lipids Presents a Challenging Evolumentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Why the Lipid Divide? Membrane Proteins as Drivers of the Split between the Lipids of the Three Domains of Life

Sojo

2019

BioEssays

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“…These seem to be of (mitochondrial) endosymbiont origin as well. [ 45 ] One also has to consider that, though mixing of the two membrane types turns out to be easily feasible, [ 46 ] we do not know whether endocytosis with archaeal membranes is easy as well. In light of their analyses, Dey et al.…”

Section: Predator/parasite Models Of Eukaryogenesis Can Be Challengedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debating Eukaryogenesis—Part 1: Does Eukaryogenesis Presuppose Symbiosis Before Uptake?

Speijer

2020

BioEssays

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Eukaryotic origins are heavily debated. The author as well as others have proposed that they are inextricably linked with the arrival of a pre‐mitochondrion of alphaproteobacterial‐like ancestry, in a so‐called symbiogenic scenario. The ensuing mutual adaptation of archaeal host and endosymbiont seems to have been a defining influence during the processes leading to the last eukaryotic common ancestor. An unresolved question in this scenario deals with the means by which the bacterium ends up inside. Older hypotheses revolve around the application of known antagonistic interactions, the bacterium being prey or parasite. Here, in reviewing the field, the author argues that such models share flaws, hence making them less likely, and that a “pre‐symbiotic stage” would have eased ongoing metabolic integration. Based on this the author will speculate about the nature of the (endo) symbiosis that started eukaryotic evolution–in the context of bacterial entry being a relatively “early” event–and stress the differences between this uptake and subsequent ones. He will also briefly discuss how the mutual adaptation following the merger progressed and how many eukaryotic hallmarks can be understood in light of coadaptation. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/ekqtNleVJpU

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“…It has also been suggested that LUCA may have had a heterochiral membrane (Wächtershäuser 2003), with later independent transitions to homochirality in Bacteria and Archaea, driven by increased membrane stability. However, the available experimental evidence -including the recent engineering of an Escherichia coli cell with a heterochiral membrane (Caforio et al 2018) -suggests that homochiral membranes are not necessarily more stable than heterochiral ones (Fan et al 1995;Shimada and Yamagishi 2011;Caforio et al 2018), requiring some other explanation for the loss of ancestral heterochirality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the origins of membrane phospholipid biosynthesis genes using outgroupfree rooting

Coleman

Pancost

Williams

2018

Preprint

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One of the key differences between Bacteria and Archaea are their canonical membrane phospholipids, which are synthesized by distinct biosynthetic pathways with non-homologous enzymes. This “lipid divide” has important implications for the early evolution of cells and the type of membrane phospholipids present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). One of the main challenges in studies of membrane evolution is that the key biosynthetic genes are ancient and their evolutionary histories are poorly resolved. This poses major challenges for traditional rooting methods because the only available outgroups are distantly related. Here, we address this issue by using the best available substitution models for single gene trees, by expanding our analyses to the diversity of uncultivated prokaryotes recently revealed by environmental genomics, and by using two complementary approaches to rooting that do not depend on outgroups. Consistent with some previous analyses, our rooted gene trees support extensive inter-domain horizontal transfer of membrane phospholipid biosynthetic genes, primarily from Archaea to Bacteria. They also suggest that the capacity to make archaeal-type membrane phospholipids was already present in LUCA.

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Converting Escherichia coli into an archaebacterium with a hybrid heterochiral membrane

Cited by 77 publications

References 48 publications

Why the Lipid Divide? Membrane Proteins as Drivers of the Split between the Lipids of the Three Domains of Life

Why the Lipid Divide? Membrane Proteins as Drivers of the Split between the Lipids of the Three Domains of Life

Debating Eukaryogenesis—Part 1: Does Eukaryogenesis Presuppose Symbiosis Before Uptake?

Resolving the origins of membrane phospholipid biosynthesis genes using outgroupfree rooting

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