Evolution and diversity of the Golgi body

Abstract

a b s t r a c tOften considered a defining eukaryotic feature, the Golgi body is one of the most recognizable and functionally integrated cellular organelles. It is therefore surprising that some unicellular eukaryotes do not, at first glance, appear to possess Golgi stacks. Here we review the molecular evolutionary, genomic and cell biological evidence for Golgi bodies in these organisms, with the organelle likely present in some form in all cases. This, along with the overwhelming prevalence of stacked cisternae in most eukaryotes, implies that the ancestral eukaryote possessed a stacked Golgi body, with at least eight independent instances of Golgi unstacking in our cellular history.

Evolution and Diversity of the Golgi

“…More critically, the major application of the Archezoa hypothesis had to do with mitochondria, and indeed its major downfall was the discovery in each of these organisms of genes and later organelles of mitochondrial origin, the hydrogen producing hydrogenosomes and minuscule mitosomes (reviewed in van der Giezen 2009). Similar evidence for Golgi presence in organisms putatively lacking the organelle was rallied from the presence of genes encoded in the nuclear genomes that are known in model systems to act primarily or exclusively at the Golgi (Dacks et al 2003;Mowbrey and Dacks 2009). Further evidence comes from cell biological studies in a few lineages identifying Golgi homologs where once there was thought to be none (Ghosh et al 1999;Marti et al 2003).…”

Formation and Maintenance of the Golgi Apparatus in Plant Cells

“…Moreover, in certain parasitic protists, the stacked Golgi structure was never observed and thus these species were considered as "Golgi-lacking" organisms ( Jékely, 2008;Mowbrey and Dacks, 2009). It is now thought that species without Golgi stacks such as S. cerevisiae have evolved from the ancestors with stacked Golgi according to phylogenetic analyses (see Section 5.1; Mowbrey and Dacks, 2009).…”

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Env7 Is a Novel Serine/Threonine Kinase 16-Related Protein Kinase and Negatively Regulates Organelle Fusion at the Lysosomal Vacuole

“…While S. cerevisiae Golgi apparatuses are constitutively disorganized, stacked cisternae are the most common structural form of the Golgi apparatus across eukaryotes, including most fungi (51,97). Interestingly, the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has a stacked Golgi apparatus (108,109), and its uncharacterized PPK13 ortholog of the ENV7 protein has been reported to be localized to the Golgi apparatus and ER in a systematic protein localization study (110). Our report establishes the budding yeast ortholog of STK16-related kinases as an inhibitor of vacuolar fusion and supports a conserved role for them in regulating endomembrane fusion/fission equilibria.…”