Eukaryotism, Towards a New Interpretation

Herrmann, Reinhold G.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-60885-8_7

Cited by 56 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 228 publications

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“…The latter, early-transfer͞multiple-dependent-loss model predicts a prolonged period of retention of dual intact and expressed genes in both compartments after gene transfer. This model seems inconsistent with both theory (29,30) and with empirical results (see the next section) indicating fairly rapid loss of one compartment's gene or the other after gene transfer͞ duplication. On the other hand, the one-loss ϭ one-transfer model and other multiple transfer models seem unlikely considering the complex series of events required for each successful functional transfer (i.e., reverse transcription, movement to the nucleus, chromosomal integration, and functional activation, which in almost all cases requires acquisition of sequences conferring both proper expression and also targeting of the now cytoplasmically synthesized protein to the mitochondrion).…”

Section: Do Multiple Gene Losses Reflect Multiple Gene Transfers?mentioning

confidence: 56%

Dynamic evolution of plant mitochondrial genomes: Mobile genes and introns and highly variable mutation rates

Palmer

Adams

Cho

et al. 2000

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

298

242

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We summarize our recent studies showing that angiosperm mitochondrial (mt) genomes have experienced remarkably high rates of gene loss and concomitant transfer to the nucleus and of intron acquisition by horizontal transfer. Moreover, we find substantial lineage-specific variation in rates of these structural mutations and also point mutations. These findings mostly arise from a Southern blot survey of gene and intron distribution in 281 diverse angiosperms. These blots reveal numerous losses of mt ribosomal protein genes but, with one exception, only rare loss of respiratory genes. Some lineages of angiosperms have kept all of their mt ribosomal protein genes whereas others have lost most of them. These many losses appear to reflect remarkably high (and variable) rates of functional transfer of mt ribosomal protein genes to the nucleus in angiosperms. The recent transfer of cox2 to the nucleus in legumes provides both an example of interorganellar gene transfer in action and a starting point for discussion of the roles of mechanistic and selective forces in determining the distribution of genetic labor between organellar and nuclear genomes. Plant mt genomes also acquire sequences by horizontal transfer. A striking example of this is a homing group I intron in the mt cox1 gene. This extraordinarily invasive mobile element has probably been acquired over 1,000 times separately during angiosperm evolution via a recent wave of cross-species horizontal transfers. Finally, whereas all previously examined angiosperm mtDNAs have low rates of synonymous substitutions, mtDNAs of two distantly related angiosperms have highly accelerated substitution rates.

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Section: Do Multiple Gene Losses Reflect Multiple Gene Transfers?mentioning

confidence: 56%

Dynamic evolution of plant mitochondrial genomes: Mobile genes and introns and highly variable mutation rates

Palmer

Adams

Cho

et al. 2000

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

298

242

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“…(The converse transfer process from host to organelle is extremely unfavourable: events of occasional host death or lysis do not lead to transfers, they lead to no progeny.) This view implicates gene transfers from the organelle and the integration of those genomes within a single cellular confines (Herrmann 1997) as major genetic mechanisms underlying the generation of eukaryotic novelties.…”

Section: Phil Trans R Soc Lond B (2003)mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Martin

Russell

2003

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

721

621

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All life is organized as cells. Physical compartmentation from the environment and self-organization of self-contained redox reactions are the most conserved attributes of living things, hence inorganic matter with such attributes would be life's most likely forebear. We propose that life evolved in structured iron monosulphide precipitates in a seepage site hydrothermal mound at a redox, pH and temperature gradient between sulphide-rich hydrothermal fluid and iron(II)-containing waters of the Hadean ocean floor. The naturally arising, three-dimensional compartmentation observed within fossilized seepage-site metal sulphide precipitates indicates that these inorganic compartments were the precursors of cell walls and membranes found in free-living prokaryotes. The known capability of FeS and NiS to catalyse the synthesis of the acetyl-methylsulphide from carbon monoxide and methylsulphide, constituents of hydrothermal fluid, indicates that pre-biotic syntheses occurred at the inner surfaces of these metal-sulphide-walled compartments, which furthermore restrained reacted products from diffusion into the ocean, providing sufficient concentrations of reactants to forge the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry. The chemistry of what is known as the RNA-world could have taken place within these naturally forming, catalyticwalled compartments to give rise to replicating systems. Sufficient concentrations of precursors to support replication would have been synthesized in situ geochemically and biogeochemically, with FeS (and NiS) centres playing the central catalytic role. The universal ancestor we infer was not a free-living cell, but rather was confined to the naturally chemiosmotic, FeS compartments within which the synthesis of its constituents occurred. The first free-living cells are suggested to have been eubacterial and archaebacterial chemoautotrophs that emerged more than 3.8 Gyr ago from their inorganic confines. We propose that the emergence of these prokaryotic lineages from inorganic confines occurred independently, facilitated by the independent origins of membrane-lipid biosynthesis: isoprenoid ether membranes in the archaebacterial and fatty acid ester membranes in the eubacterial lineage. The eukaryotes, all of which are ancestrally heterotrophs and possess eubacterial lipids, are suggested to have arisen ca. 2 Gyr ago through symbiosis involving an autotrophic archaebacterial host and a heterotrophic eubacterial symbiont, the common ancestor of mitochondria and hydrogenosomes. The attributes shared by all prokaryotes are viewed as inheritances from their confined universal ancestor. The attributes that distinguish eubacteria and archaebacteria, yet are uniform within the groups, are viewed as relics of their phase of differentiation after divergence from the non-free-living universal ancestor and before the origin of the free-living chemoautotrophic lifestyle. The attributes shared by eukaryotes with eubacteria and archaebacteria, respectively, are viewed as inheritances via symbiosis. The ...

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“…It is by no means trivial to say that the photosynthetic process in chloroplasts is anchored in the genetic system of the plant (autotrophic eukaryotic) cell, which has a compartmentalized set-up with a long and complex history. Molecular research in photosynthesis has contributed substantially to the elucidation of the basic principles of the genetic system of that cell, to formulate a new concept of eukaryotism from both functional and phylogenetic aspects, and to develop the currently predominating concept of 'molecular phylogeny' towards a 'functionally defined molecular phylogeny' (Herrmann 1997;Martin & Herrmann 1998;Race et al 1999;Herrmann & Westhoff 2001) that we ultimately want to understand. Although mere sequence analysis has been, and is, useful for the deduction of genealogies, evolution is based on selection of function, and without knowledge of the underlying functional aspects, so far it has revealed neither how and why a particular development has occurred, nor how the plant cell operates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eukaryotic genome evolution: rearrangement and coevolution of compartmentalized genetic information

Herrmann

Maier

Schmitz‐Linneweber

2003

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

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The plant cell operates with an integrated, compartmentalized genome consisting of nucleus/cytosol, plastids and mitochondria that, in its entirety, is regulated in time, quantitatively, in multicellular organisms and also in space. This genome, as do genomes of eukaryotes in general, originated in endosymbiotic events, with at least three cells, and was shaped phylogenetically by a massive and highly complex restructuring and intermixing of the genetic potentials of the symbiotic partners and by lateral gene transfer. This was accompanied by fundamental changes in expression signals in the entire system at almost all regulatory levels. The gross genome rearrangements contrast with a highly specific compartmental interplay, which becomes apparent in interspecific nuclear-plastid cybrids or hybrids. Organelle exchanges, even between closely related species, can greatly disturb the intracellular genetic balance ('hybrid bleaching'), which is indicative of compartmental coevolution and is of relevance for speciation processes. The photosynthetic machinery of plastids, which is embedded in that genetic machinery, is an appealing model to probe into genomic and organismic evolution and to develop functional molecular genomics. We have studied the reciprocal Atropa belladonna-Nicotiana tabacum cybrids, which differ markedly in their phenotypes, and found that transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes can contribute to genome/ plastome incompatibility. Allopolyploidy can influence this phenomenon by providing an increased, cryptic RNA editing potential and the capacity to maintain the integrity of organelles of different taxonomic origins.

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Eukaryotism, Towards a New Interpretation

Cited by 56 publications

References 228 publications

Dynamic evolution of plant mitochondrial genomes: Mobile genes and introns and highly variable mutation rates

Dynamic evolution of plant mitochondrial genomes: Mobile genes and introns and highly variable mutation rates

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Eukaryotic genome evolution: rearrangement and coevolution of compartmentalized genetic information

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