1
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Delaye L. The Unfinished Reconstructed Nature of the Last Universal Common Ancestor. J Mol Evol 2024:10.1007/s00239-024-10187-8. [PMID: 39026043 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-024-10187-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2024] [Accepted: 07/01/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
The ultimate consequence of Darwin's theory of common descent implies that all life on earth descends ultimately from a common ancestor. Biochemistry and molecular biology now provide sufficient evidence of shared ancestry of all extant life forms. However, the nature of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) has been a topic of much debate over the years. This review offers a historical perspective on different attempts to infer LUCA's nature, exploring the debate surrounding its complexity. We further examine how different methodologies identify sets of ancient protein that exhibit only partial overlap. For example, different bioinformatic approaches have identified distinct protein subunits from the ATP synthetase identified as potentially inherited from LUCA. Additionally, we discuss how detailed molecular evolutionary analysis of reverse gyrase has modified previous inferences about an hyperthermophilic LUCA based mainly on automatic bioinformatic pipelines. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of developing a database dedicated to studying genes and proteins traceable back to LUCA and earlier stages of cellular evolution. Such a database would house the most ancient genes on earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Delaye
- Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato, Km 9.6 Libramiento Norte Carretera Irapuato-León CP. 36824, Irapuato, Gto., Mexico.
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2
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Moody ERR, Álvarez-Carretero S, Mahendrarajah TA, Clark JW, Betts HC, Dombrowski N, Szánthó LL, Boyle RA, Daines S, Chen X, Lane N, Yang Z, Shields GA, Szöllősi GJ, Spang A, Pisani D, Williams TA, Lenton TM, Donoghue PCJ. The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system. Nat Ecol Evol 2024:10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1. [PMID: 38997462 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/14/2024]
Abstract
The nature of the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), its age and its impact on the Earth system have been the subject of vigorous debate across diverse disciplines, often based on disparate data and methods. Age estimates for LUCA are usually based on the fossil record, varying with every reinterpretation. The nature of LUCA's metabolism has proven equally contentious, with some attributing all core metabolisms to LUCA, whereas others reconstruct a simpler life form dependent on geochemistry. Here we infer that LUCA lived ~4.2 Ga (4.09-4.33 Ga) through divergence time analysis of pre-LUCA gene duplicates, calibrated using microbial fossils and isotope records under a new cross-bracing implementation. Phylogenetic reconciliation suggests that LUCA had a genome of at least 2.5 Mb (2.49-2.99 Mb), encoding around 2,600 proteins, comparable to modern prokaryotes. Our results suggest LUCA was a prokaryote-grade anaerobic acetogen that possessed an early immune system. Although LUCA is sometimes perceived as living in isolation, we infer LUCA to have been part of an established ecological system. The metabolism of LUCA would have provided a niche for other microbial community members and hydrogen recycling by atmospheric photochemistry could have supported a modestly productive early ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edmund R R Moody
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | | | - Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - James W Clark
- Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK
| | - Holly C Betts
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Nina Dombrowski
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE 'Lendulet' Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, HUN-REN Center for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Stuart Daines
- Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Xi Chen
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Nick Lane
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
| | - Ziheng Yang
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
| | - Graham A Shields
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- MTA-ELTE 'Lendulet' Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, HUN-REN Center for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
- Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, The Netherlands
- Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Davide Pisani
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | | | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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3
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Torrance EL, Diop A, Bobay LM. Homologous Recombination Shapes the Architecture and Evolution of Bacterial Genomes. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.31.596828. [PMID: 38895235 PMCID: PMC11185547 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.31.596828] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Homologous recombination is a key evolutionary force that varies considerably across bacterial species. However, how the landscape of homologous recombination varies across genes and within individual genomes has only been studied in a few species. Here, we used Approximate Bayesian Computation to estimate the recombination rate along the genomes of 145 bacterial species. Our results show that homologous recombination varies greatly along bacterial genomes and shapes many aspects of genome architecture and evolution. The genomic landscape of recombination presents several key signatures: rates are highest near the origin of replication in most species, patterns of recombination generally appear symmetrical in both replichores (i.e. replicational halves of circular chromosomes) and most species have genomic hotpots of recombination. Furthermore, many closely related species share conserved landscapes of recombination across orthologs indicating that recombination landscapes are conserved over significant evolutionary distances. We show evidence that recombination drives the evolution of GC-content through increasing the effectiveness of selection and not through biased gene conversion, thereby contributing to an ongoing debate. Finally, we demonstrate that the rate of recombination varies across gene function and that many hotspots of recombination are associated with adaptive and mobile regions often encoding genes involved in pathogenicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellis L Torrance
- Dept. of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412
- Systems Biology Dept., Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551
| | - Awa Diop
- Dept. of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
| | - Louis-Marie Bobay
- Dept. of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412
- Dept. of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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4
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Baños H, Susko E, Roger AJ. Is Over-parameterization a Problem for Profile Mixture Models? Syst Biol 2024; 73:53-75. [PMID: 37843172 PMCID: PMC11129589 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syad063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Biochemical constraints on the admissible amino acids at specific sites in proteins lead to heterogeneity of the amino acid substitution process over sites in alignments. It is well known that phylogenetic models of protein sequence evolution that do not account for site heterogeneity are prone to long-branch attraction (LBA) artifacts. Profile mixture models were developed to model heterogeneity of preferred amino acids at sites via a finite distribution of site classes each with a distinct set of equilibrium amino acid frequencies. However, it is unknown whether the large number of parameters in such models associated with the many amino acid frequency vectors can adversely affect tree topology estimates because of over-parameterization. Here, we demonstrate theoretically that for long sequences, over-parameterization does not create problems for estimation with profile mixture models. Under mild conditions, tree, amino acid frequencies, and other model parameters converge to true values as sequence length increases, even when there are large numbers of components in the frequency profile distributions. Because large sample theory does not necessarily imply good behavior for shorter alignments we explore the performance of these models with short alignments simulated with tree topologies that are prone to LBA artifacts. We find that over-parameterization is not a problem for complex profile mixture models even when there are many amino acid frequency vectors. In fact, simple models with few site classes behave poorly. Interestingly, we also found that misspecification of the amino acid frequency vectors does not lead to increased LBA artifacts as long as the estimated cumulative distribution function of the amino acid frequencies at sites adequately approximates the true one. In contrast, misspecification of the amino acid exchangeability rates can severely negatively affect parameter estimation. Finally, we explore the effects of including in the profile mixture model an additional "F-class" representing the overall frequencies of amino acids in the data set. Surprisingly, the F-class does not help parameter estimation significantly and can decrease the probability of correct tree estimation, depending on the scenario, even though it tends to improve likelihood scores.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hector Baños
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
- Institute for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Edward Susko
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
- Institute for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Andrew J Roger
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
- Institute for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
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5
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Torrance EL, Burton C, Diop A, Bobay LM. Evolution of homologous recombination rates across bacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2316302121. [PMID: 38657048 PMCID: PMC11067023 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316302121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Bacteria are nonsexual organisms but are capable of exchanging DNA at diverse degrees through homologous recombination. Intriguingly, the rates of recombination vary immensely across lineages where some species have been described as purely clonal and others as "quasi-sexual." However, estimating recombination rates has proven a difficult endeavor and estimates often vary substantially across studies. It is unclear whether these variations reflect natural variations across populations or are due to differences in methodologies. Consequently, the impact of recombination on bacterial evolution has not been extensively evaluated and the evolution of recombination rate-as a trait-remains to be accurately described. Here, we developed an approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation that integrates multiple signals of recombination to estimate recombination rates. We inferred the rate of recombination of 162 bacterial species and one archaeon and tested the robustness of our approach. Our results confirm that recombination rates vary drastically across bacteria; however, we found that recombination rate-as a trait-is conserved in several lineages but evolves rapidly in others. Although some traits are thought to be associated with recombination rate (e.g., GC-content), we found no clear association between genomic or phenotypic traits and recombination rate. Overall, our results provide an overview of recombination rate, its evolution, and its impact on bacterial evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellis L Torrance
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27412
| | - Corey Burton
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27412
| | - Awa Diop
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
| | - Louis-Marie Bobay
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27412
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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6
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Lachowicz JC, Lennox-Hvenekilde D, Myling-Petersen N, Salomonsen B, Verkleij G, Acevedo-Rocha CG, Caddell B, Gronenberg LS, Almo SC, Sommer MOA, Genee HJ, Grove TL. Discovery of a Biotin Synthase That Utilizes an Auxiliary 4Fe-5S Cluster for Sulfur Insertion. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:1860-1873. [PMID: 38215281 PMCID: PMC10813225 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c05481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Biotin synthase (BioB) is a member of the Radical SAM superfamily of enzymes that catalyzes the terminal step of biotin (vitamin B7) biosynthesis, in which it inserts a sulfur atom in desthiobiotin to form a thiolane ring. How BioB accomplishes this difficult reaction has been the subject of much controversy, mainly around the source of the sulfur atom. However, it is now widely accepted that the sulfur atom inserted to form biotin stems from the sacrifice of the auxiliary 2Fe-2S cluster of BioB. Here, we bioinformatically explore the diversity of BioBs available in sequence databases and find an unexpected variation in the coordination of the auxiliary iron-sulfur cluster. After in vitro characterization, including the determination of biotin formation and representative crystal structures, we report a new type of BioB utilized by virtually all obligate anaerobic organisms. Instead of a 2Fe-2S cluster, this novel type of BioB utilizes an auxiliary 4Fe-5S cluster. Interestingly, this auxiliary 4Fe-5S cluster contains a ligated sulfide that we propose is used for biotin formation. We have termed this novel type of BioB, Type II BioB, with the E. coli 2Fe-2S cluster sacrificial BioB representing Type I. This surprisingly ubiquitous Type II BioB has implications for our understanding of the function and evolution of Fe-S clusters in enzyme catalysis, highlighting the difference in strategies between the anaerobic and aerobic world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jake C. Lachowicz
- Department
of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, United States
| | - David Lennox-Hvenekilde
- The
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
- Biosyntia
ApS, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
| | | | | | | | - Carlos G. Acevedo-Rocha
- The
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
- Biosyntia
ApS, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
| | | | | | - Steven C. Almo
- Department
of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, United States
| | - Morten O. A. Sommer
- The
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | | | - Tyler L. Grove
- Department
of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, United States
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7
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Ortjohann M, Schönheit P. Identification and characterization of a novel type of ketohexokinase from the haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2024; 371:fnae026. [PMID: 38587824 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnae026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2024] [Revised: 03/18/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Ketohexokinase (KHK) catalyzes the ATP-dependent phosphorylation of fructose, forming fructose-1-phosphate and ADP. The enzyme is well studied in Eukarya, in particular in humans and other vertebrates, but homologs have not been identified in Bacteria and Archaea. Here we report the identification of a novel type of KHK from the haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii (HvKHK). The encoding gene khk was identified as HVO_1812. The gene was expressed as a 90-kDa homodimeric protein, catalyzing the phosphorylation of fructose with a Vmax value of 59 U/mg and apparent KM values for ATP and fructose of 0.47 and 1.29 mM, respectively. Homologs of HvKHK were only identified in a few haloarchaea and halophilic Bacteria. The protein showed low sequence identity to characterized KHKs from Eukarya and phylogenetic analyses indicate that haloarchaeal KHKs are largely separated from eukaryal KHKs. This is the first report of the identification of KHKs in prokaryotes that form a novel cluster of sugar kinases within the ribokinase/pfkB superfamily.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marius Ortjohann
- Institut für Allgemeine Mikrobiologie, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
| | - Peter Schönheit
- Institut für Allgemeine Mikrobiologie, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
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8
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Williams TA, Davin AA, Szánthó LL, Stamatakis A, Wahl NA, Woodcroft BJ, Soo RM, Eme L, Sheridan PO, Gubry-Rangin C, Spang A, Hugenholtz P, Szöllősi GJ. Phylogenetic reconciliation: making the most of genomes to understand microbial ecology and evolution. THE ISME JOURNAL 2024; 18:wrae129. [PMID: 39001714 PMCID: PMC11293204 DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2024] [Revised: 07/01/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/15/2024]
Abstract
In recent years, phylogenetic reconciliation has emerged as a promising approach for studying microbial ecology and evolution. The core idea is to model how gene trees evolve along a species tree and to explain differences between them via evolutionary events including gene duplications, transfers, and losses. Here, we describe how phylogenetic reconciliation provides a natural framework for studying genome evolution and highlight recent applications including ancestral gene content inference, the rooting of species trees, and the insights into metabolic evolution and ecological transitions they yield. Reconciliation analyses have elucidated the evolution of diverse microbial lineages, from Chlamydiae to Asgard archaea, shedding light on ecological adaptation, host-microbe interactions, and symbiotic relationships. However, there are many opportunities for broader application of the approach in microbiology. Continuing improvements to make reconciliation models more realistic and scalable, and integration of ecological metadata such as habitat, pH, temperature, and oxygen use offer enormous potential for understanding the rich tapestry of microbial life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS81TQ, United Kingdom
| | - Adrian A Davin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 113-0033 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- MTA-ELTE “Lendület” Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Eötvös University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 904-0495 Okinawa, Japan
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Biodiversity Computing Group, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany
- Institute of Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Noah A Wahl
- Biodiversity Computing Group, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Ben J Woodcroft
- Centre for Microbiome Research, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia
| | - Rochelle M Soo
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Laura Eme
- Unité d’Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Saclay, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Paul O Sheridan
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
| | - Cecile Gubry-Rangin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, United Kingdom
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands
- Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- MTA-ELTE “Lendület” Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Eötvös University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 904-0495 Okinawa, Japan
- Institute of Evolution, HUN REN Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
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9
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Baum B, Spang A. On the origin of the nucleus: a hypothesis. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2023; 87:e0018621. [PMID: 38018971 PMCID: PMC10732040 DOI: 10.1128/mmbr.00186-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
SUMMARYIn this hypothesis article, we explore the origin of the eukaryotic nucleus. In doing so, we first look afresh at the nature of this defining feature of the eukaryotic cell and its core functions-emphasizing the utility of seeing the eukaryotic nucleoplasm and cytoplasm as distinct regions of a common compartment. We then discuss recent progress in understanding the evolution of the eukaryotic cell from archaeal and bacterial ancestors, focusing on phylogenetic and experimental data which have revealed that many eukaryotic machines with nuclear activities have archaeal counterparts. In addition, we review the literature describing the cell biology of representatives of the TACK and Asgardarchaeaota - the closest known living archaeal relatives of eukaryotes. Finally, bringing these strands together, we propose a model for the archaeal origin of the nucleus that explains much of the current data, including predictions that can be used to put the model to the test.
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Affiliation(s)
- Buzz Baum
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, the Netherlands
- Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, the Netherlands
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10
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Palacios-Pérez M, José MV. A Proposal of the Ur-RNAome. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:2158. [PMID: 38136981 PMCID: PMC10743229 DOI: 10.3390/genes14122158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
It is widely accepted that the earliest RNA molecules were folded into hairpins or mini-helixes. Herein, we depict the 2D and 3D conformations of those earliest RNA molecules with only RNY triplets, which Eigen proposed as the primeval genetic code. We selected 26 species (13 bacteria and 13 archaea). We found that the free energy of RNY hairpins was consistently lower than that of their corresponding shuffled controls. We found traces of the three ribosomal RNAs (16S, 23S, and 5S), tRNAs, 6S RNA, and the RNA moieties of RNase P and the signal recognition particle. Nevertheless, at this stage of evolution there was no genetic code (as seen in the absence of the peptidyl transferase centre and any vestiges of the anti-Shine-Dalgarno sequence). Interestingly, we detected the anticodons of both glycine (GCC) and threonine (GGU) in the hairpins of proto-tRNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miryam Palacios-Pérez
- Theoretical Biology Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico
- Network of Researchers on the Chemical Emergence of Life (NoRCEL), Leeds LS7 3RB, UK
- NoRCEL’s Latin America Hub, 113 Philosophy Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Marco V. José
- Theoretical Biology Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico
- Network of Researchers on the Chemical Emergence of Life (NoRCEL), Leeds LS7 3RB, UK
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11
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Rangel LT, Fournier GP. Fast-Evolving Alignment Sites Are Highly Informative for Reconstructions of Deep Tree of Life Phylogenies. Microorganisms 2023; 11:2499. [PMID: 37894157 PMCID: PMC10609509 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11102499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The trimming of fast-evolving sites, often known as "slow-fast" analysis, is broadly used in microbial phylogenetic reconstruction under the assumption that fast-evolving sites do not retain an accurate phylogenetic signal due to substitution saturation. Therefore, removing sites that have experienced multiple substitutions would improve the signal-to-noise ratio in phylogenetic analyses, with the remaining slower-evolving sites preserving a more reliable record of evolutionary relationships. Here, we show that, contrary to this assumption, even the fastest-evolving sites present in the conserved proteins often used in Tree of Life studies contain reliable and valuable phylogenetic information, and that the trimming of such sites can negatively impact the accuracy of phylogenetic reconstruction. Simulated alignments modeled after ribosomal protein datasets used in Tree of Life studies consistently show that slow-evolving sites are less likely to recover true bipartitions than even the fastest-evolving sites. Furthermore, site-specific substitution rates are positively correlated with the frequency of accurately recovered short-branched bipartitions, as slowly evolving sites are less likely to have experienced substitutions along these intervals. Using published Tree of Life sequence alignment datasets, we also show that both slow- and fast-evolving sites contain similarly inconsistent phylogenetic signals, and that, for fast-evolving sites, this inconsistency can be attributed to poor alignment quality. Furthermore, trimming fast sites, slow sites, or both is shown to have a substantial impact on phylogenetic reconstruction across multiple evolutionary models. This is perhaps most evident in the resulting placements of the Eukarya and Asgardarchaeota groups, which are especially sensitive to the implementation of different trimming schemes.
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Affiliation(s)
- L. Thibério Rangel
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;
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12
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Mateos K, Chappell G, Klos A, Le B, Boden J, Stüeken E, Anderson R. The evolution and spread of sulfur cycling enzymes reflect the redox state of the early Earth. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade4847. [PMID: 37418533 PMCID: PMC10328410 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade4847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2022] [Revised: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/09/2023]
Abstract
The biogeochemical sulfur cycle plays a central role in fueling microbial metabolisms, regulating the Earth's redox state, and affecting climate. However, geochemical reconstructions of the ancient sulfur cycle are confounded by ambiguous isotopic signals. We use phylogenetic reconciliation to ascertain the timing of ancient sulfur cycling gene events across the tree of life. Our results suggest that metabolisms using sulfide oxidation emerged in the Archean, but those involving thiosulfate emerged only after the Great Oxidation Event. Our data reveal that observed geochemical signatures resulted not from the expansion of a single type of organism but were instead associated with genomic innovation across the biosphere. Moreover, our results provide the first indication of organic sulfur cycling from the Mid-Proterozoic onwards, with implications for climate regulation and atmospheric biosignatures. Overall, our results provide insights into how the biological sulfur cycle evolved in tandem with the redox state of the early Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Mateos
- Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
- Ocean Sciences Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
| | - Garrett Chappell
- Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Aya Klos
- Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
| | - Bryan Le
- Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
| | - Joanne Boden
- University of St. Andrews, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bute Building, Queen’s Terrace, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, UK
| | - Eva Stüeken
- University of St. Andrews, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bute Building, Queen’s Terrace, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, UK
| | - Rika Anderson
- Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
- NASA NExSS Virtual Planetary Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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13
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Řezanka T, Kyselová L, Murphy DJ. Archaeal lipids. Prog Lipid Res 2023; 91:101237. [PMID: 37236370 DOI: 10.1016/j.plipres.2023.101237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The major archaeal membrane glycerolipids are distinguished from those of bacteria and eukaryotes by the contrasting stereochemistry of their glycerol backbones, and by the use of ether-linked isoprenoid-based alkyl chains rather than ester-linked fatty acyl chains for their hydrophobic moieties. These fascinating compounds play important roles in the extremophile lifestyles of many species, but are also present in the growing numbers of recently discovered mesophilic archaea. The past decade has witnessed significant advances in our understanding of archaea in general and their lipids in particular. Much of the new information has come from the ability to screen large microbial populations via environmental metagenomics, which has revolutionised our understanding of the extent of archaeal biodiversity that is coupled with a strict conservation of their membrane lipid compositions. Significant additional progress has come from new culturing and analytical techniques that are gradually enabling archaeal physiology and biochemistry to be studied in real time. These studies are beginning to shed light on the much-discussed and still-controversial process of eukaryogenesis, which probably involved both bacterial and archaeal progenitors. Puzzlingly, although eukaryotes retain many attributes of their putative archaeal ancestors, their lipid compositions only reflect their bacterial progenitors. Finally, elucidation of archaeal lipids and their metabolic pathways have revealed potentially interesting applications that have opened up new frontiers for biotechnological exploitation of these organisms. This review is concerned with the analysis, structure, function, evolution and biotechnology of archaeal lipids and their associated metabolic pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Řezanka
- Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vídeňská 1083, 142 00 Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lucie Kyselová
- Research Institute of Brewing and Malting, Lípová 511, 120 44 Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Denis J Murphy
- School of Applied Sciences, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL, United Kingdom.
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14
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Couto-Rodríguez RL, Koh J, Chen S, Maupin-Furlow JA. Insights into the Lysine Acetylome of the Haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii during Oxidative Stress by Quantitative SILAC-Based Proteomics. Antioxidants (Basel) 2023; 12:1203. [PMID: 37371933 PMCID: PMC10294847 DOI: 10.3390/antiox12061203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Oxidative stress adaptation strategies are important to cell function and are linked to cardiac, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer. Representatives of the Archaea domain are used as model organisms based on their extreme tolerance to oxidants and close evolutionary relationship with eukaryotes. A study of the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii reveals lysine acetylation to be associated with oxidative stress responses. The strong oxidant hypochlorite: (i) stimulates an increase in lysine acetyltransferase HvPat2 to HvPat1 abundance ratios and (ii) selects for lysine deacetylase sir2 mutants. Here we report the dynamic occupancy of the lysine acetylome of glycerol-grown H. volcanii as it shifts in profile in response to hypochlorite. These findings are revealed by the: (1) quantitative multiplex proteomics of the SILAC-compatible parent and Δsir2 mutant strains and (2) label-free proteomics of H26 'wild type' cells. The results show that lysine acetylation is associated with key biological processes including DNA topology, central metabolism, cobalamin biosynthesis, and translation. Lysine acetylation targets are found conserved across species. Moreover, lysine residues modified by acetylation and ubiquitin-like sampylation are identified suggesting post-translational modification (PTM) crosstalk. Overall, the results of this study expand the current knowledge of lysine acetylation in Archaea, with the long-term goal to provide a balanced evolutionary perspective of PTM systems in living organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo L. Couto-Rodríguez
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA;
| | - Jin Koh
- Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry, Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; (J.K.); (S.C.)
| | - Sixue Chen
- Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry, Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; (J.K.); (S.C.)
- Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- Department of Biology, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA
| | - Julie A. Maupin-Furlow
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA;
- Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
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15
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Eme L, Tamarit D, Caceres EF, Stairs CW, De Anda V, Schön ME, Seitz KW, Dombrowski N, Lewis WH, Homa F, Saw JH, Lombard J, Nunoura T, Li WJ, Hua ZS, Chen LX, Banfield JF, John ES, Reysenbach AL, Stott MB, Schramm A, Kjeldsen KU, Teske AP, Baker BJ, Ettema TJG. Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes. Nature 2023; 618:992-999. [PMID: 37316666 PMCID: PMC10307638 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06186-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 42.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
In the ongoing debates about eukaryogenesis-the series of evolutionary events leading to the emergence of the eukaryotic cell from prokaryotic ancestors-members of the Asgard archaea play a key part as the closest archaeal relatives of eukaryotes1. However, the nature and phylogenetic identity of the last common ancestor of Asgard archaea and eukaryotes remain unresolved2-4. Here we analyse distinct phylogenetic marker datasets of an expanded genomic sampling of Asgard archaea and evaluate competing evolutionary scenarios using state-of-the-art phylogenomic approaches. We find that eukaryotes are placed, with high confidence, as a well-nested clade within Asgard archaea and as a sister lineage to Hodarchaeales, a newly proposed order within Heimdallarchaeia. Using sophisticated gene tree and species tree reconciliation approaches, we show that analogous to the evolution of eukaryotic genomes, genome evolution in Asgard archaea involved significantly more gene duplication and fewer gene loss events compared with other archaea. Finally, we infer that the last common ancestor of Asgard archaea was probably a thermophilic chemolithotroph and that the lineage from which eukaryotes evolved adapted to mesophilic conditions and acquired the genetic potential to support a heterotrophic lifestyle. Our work provides key insights into the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition and a platform for better understanding the emergence of cellular complexity in eukaryotic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Eme
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Laboratoire Écologie, Systématique, Évolution, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Daniel Tamarit
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Eva F Caceres
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Courtney W Stairs
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Valerie De Anda
- Department of Marine Science, Marine Science Institute, University of Texas Austin, Port Aransas, TX, USA
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Max E Schön
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Kiley W Seitz
- Department of Marine Science, Marine Science Institute, University of Texas Austin, Port Aransas, TX, USA
- Structural and Computational Biology, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Nina Dombrowski
- Department of Marine Science, Marine Science Institute, University of Texas Austin, Port Aransas, TX, USA
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, AB Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - William H Lewis
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Felix Homa
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jimmy H Saw
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Jonathan Lombard
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Takuro Nunoura
- Research Center for Bioscience and Nanoscience (CeBN), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka, Japan
| | - Wen-Jun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Zheng-Shuang Hua
- Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
| | - Lin-Xing Chen
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jillian F Banfield
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Emily St John
- Department of Biology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
| | | | - Matthew B Stott
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Andreas Schramm
- Section for Microbiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Kasper U Kjeldsen
- Section for Microbiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Andreas P Teske
- Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Brett J Baker
- Department of Marine Science, Marine Science Institute, University of Texas Austin, Port Aransas, TX, USA
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Thijs J G Ettema
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
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16
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van der Gulik PTS, Hoff WD, Speijer D. Renewing Linnaean taxonomy: a proposal to restructure the highest levels of the Natural System. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2023; 98:584-602. [PMID: 36366773 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
During the last century enormous progress has been made in the understanding of biological diversity, involving a dramatic shift from macroscopic to microscopic organisms. The question now arises as to whether the Natural System introduced by Carl Linnaeus, which has served as the central system for organizing biological diversity, can accommodate the great expansion of diversity that has been discovered. Important discoveries regarding biological diversity have not been fully integrated into a formal, coherent taxonomic system. In addition, because of taxonomic challenges and conflicts, various proposals have been made to abandon key aspects of the Linnaean system. We review the current status of taxonomy of the living world, focussing on groups at the taxonomic level of phylum and above. We summarize the main arguments against and in favour of abandoning aspects of the Linnaean system. Based on these considerations, we conclude that retaining the Linnaean Natural System provides important advantages. We propose a relatively small number of amendments for extending this system, particularly to include the named rank of world (Latin alternative mundis) formally to include non-cellular entities (viruses), and the named rank of empire (Latin alternative imperium) to accommodate the depth of diversity in (unicellular) eukaryotes that has been uncovered. We argue that in the case of both the eukaryotic domain and the viruses the cladistic approach intrinsically fails. However, the resulting semi-cladistic system provides a productive way forward that can help resolve taxonomic challenges. The amendments proposed allow us to: (i) retain named taxonomic levels and the three-domain system, (ii) improve understanding of the main eukaryotic lineages, and (iii) incorporate viruses into the Natural System. Of note, the proposal described herein is intended to serve as the starting point for a broad scientific discussion regarding the modernization of the Linnaean system.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Wouter D Hoff
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Department of Chemistry, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA
| | - David Speijer
- Department of Medical Biochemistry, AmsterdamUMC, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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17
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Čorak N, Anniko S, Daschkin-Steinborn C, Krey V, Koska S, Futo M, Široki T, Woichansky I, Opašić L, Kifer D, Tušar A, Maxeiner HG, Domazet-Lošo M, Nicolaus C, Domazet-Lošo T. Pleomorphic Variants of Borreliella (syn. Borrelia) burgdorferi Express Evolutionary Distinct Transcriptomes. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24065594. [PMID: 36982667 PMCID: PMC10057712 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24065594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2023] [Revised: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Borreliella (syn. Borrelia) burgdorferi is a spirochete bacterium that causes tick-borne Lyme disease. Along its lifecycle B. burgdorferi develops several pleomorphic forms with unclear biological and medical relevance. Surprisingly, these morphotypes have never been compared at the global transcriptome level. To fill this void, we grew B. burgdorferi spirochete, round body, bleb, and biofilm-dominated cultures and recovered their transcriptomes by RNAseq profiling. We found that round bodies share similar expression profiles with spirochetes, despite their morphological differences. This sharply contrasts to blebs and biofilms that showed unique transcriptomes, profoundly distinct from spirochetes and round bodies. To better characterize differentially expressed genes in non-spirochete morphotypes, we performed functional, positional, and evolutionary enrichment analyses. Our results suggest that spirochete to round body transition relies on the delicate regulation of a relatively small number of highly conserved genes, which are located on the main chromosome and involved in translation. In contrast, spirochete to bleb or biofilm transition includes substantial reshaping of transcription profiles towards plasmids-residing and evolutionary young genes, which originated in the ancestor of Borreliaceae. Despite their abundance the function of these Borreliaceae-specific genes is largely unknown. However, many known Lyme disease virulence genes implicated in immune evasion and tissue adhesion originated in this evolutionary period. Taken together, these regularities point to the possibility that bleb and biofilm morphotypes might be important in the dissemination and persistence of B. burgdorferi inside the mammalian host. On the other hand, they prioritize the large pool of unstudied Borreliaceae-specific genes for functional characterization because this subset likely contains undiscovered Lyme disease pathogenesis genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Čorak
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Sirli Anniko
- BCA-Research, BCA-Clinic Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany
- Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
| | | | - Viktoria Krey
- BCA-Research, BCA-Clinic Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany
- Physics of Synthetic Biological Systems-E14, Physics Department and ZNN, Technische Universität München, D-85748 Garching, Germany
| | - Sara Koska
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Momir Futo
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- School of Medicine, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Tin Široki
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | | | - Luka Opašić
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Domagoj Kifer
- Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, A. Kovačića 1, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Anja Tušar
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Horst-Günter Maxeiner
- BCA-Research, BCA-Clinic Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany
- Comlamed, Friedrich-Bergius Ring 15, D-97076 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Mirjana Domazet-Lošo
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Carsten Nicolaus
- BCA-Research, BCA-Clinic Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany
| | - Tomislav Domazet-Lošo
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- School of Medicine, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- Correspondence:
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18
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Zhao F, Akanuma S. Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction of the Ribosomal Protein uS8 and Reduction of Amino Acid Usage to a Smaller Alphabet. J Mol Evol 2023; 91:10-23. [PMID: 36396786 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-022-10078-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the origin and early evolution of proteins is important for unveiling how the RNA world developed into an RNA-protein world. Because the composition of organic molecules in the Earth's primitive environment was plausibly not as diverse as today, the number of different amino acids used in early protein synthesis is likely to be substantially less than the current 20 proteinogenic residues. In this study, we have explored the thermal stability and RNA binding of ancestral variants of the ribosomal protein uS8 constructed from a reduced-alphabet of amino acids. First, we built a phylogenetic tree based on the amino acid sequences of uS8 from multiple extant organisms and used the tree to infer two plausible amino acid sequences corresponding to the last bacterial common ancestor of uS8. Both ancestral proteins were thermally stable and bound to an RNA fragment. By eliminating individual amino acid letters and monitoring thermal stability and RNA binding in the resulting proteins, we reduced the size of the amino acid set constituting one of the ancestral proteins, eventually finding that convergent sequences consisting of 15- or 14-amino acid alphabets still folded into stable structures that bound to the RNA fragment. Furthermore, a simplified variant reconstructed from a 13-amino-acid alphabet retained affinity for the RNA fragment, although it lost conformational stability. Collectively, RNA-binding activity may be achieved with a subset of the current 20 amino acids, raising the possibility of a simpler composition of RNA-binding proteins in the earliest stage of protein evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fangzheng Zhao
- Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15, Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192, Japan
| | - Satoshi Akanuma
- Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15, Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192, Japan.
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19
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Spang A. Is an archaeon the ancestor of eukaryotes? Environ Microbiol 2022; 25:775-779. [PMID: 36562617 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.16323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The origin of complex cellular life is a key puzzle in evolutionary research, which has broad implications for various neighbouring scientific disciplines. Naturally, views on this topic vary widely depending on the world view and context from which this topic is approached. In the following, I will share my perspective about our current scientific knowledge on the origin of eukaryotic cells, that is, eukaryogenesis, from a biological point of view focusing on the question as to whether an archaeon was the ancestor of eukaryotes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Spang
- NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Utrecht University, AB Den Burg, The Netherlands.,Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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20
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Adam PS, Kolyfetis GE, Bornemann TLV, Vorgias CE, Probst AJ. Genomic remnants of ancestral methanogenesis and hydrogenotrophy in Archaea drive anaerobic carbon cycling. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabm9651. [PMID: 36332026 PMCID: PMC9635834 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm9651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Anaerobic methane metabolism is among the hallmarks of Archaea, originating very early in their evolution. Here, we show that the ancestor of methane metabolizers was an autotrophic CO2-reducing hydrogenotrophic methanogen that possessed the two main complexes, methyl-CoM reductase (Mcr) and tetrahydromethanopterin-CoM methyltransferase (Mtr), the anaplerotic hydrogenases Eha and Ehb, and a set of other genes collectively called "methanogenesis markers" but could not oxidize alkanes. Overturning recent inferences, we demonstrate that methyl-dependent hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis has emerged multiple times independently, either due to a loss of Mtr while Mcr is inherited vertically or from an ancient lateral acquisition of Mcr. Even if Mcr is lost, Mtr, Eha, Ehb, and the markers can persist, resulting in mixotrophic metabolisms centered around the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. Through their methanogenesis remnants, Thorarchaeia and two newly reconstructed order-level lineages in Archaeoglobi and Bathyarchaeia act as metabolically versatile players in carbon cycling of anoxic environments across the globe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Panagiotis S. Adam
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
- Corresponding author.
| | - George E. Kolyfetis
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis Zografou, 15784 Athens, Greece
| | - Till L. V. Bornemann
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
| | - Constantinos E. Vorgias
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis Zografou, 15784 Athens, Greece
| | - Alexander J. Probst
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
- Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
- Research Center One Health Ruhr, Research Alliance Ruhr, Environmental Metagenomics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141 Essen, Germany
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21
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Garcia PS, D'Angelo F, Ollagnier de Choudens S, Dussouchaud M, Bouveret E, Gribaldo S, Barras F. An early origin of iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis machineries before Earth oxygenation. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1564-1572. [PMID: 36109654 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01857-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 07/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are ubiquitous cofactors essential for life. It is largely thought that the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis and progressive oxygenation of the atmosphere led to the origin of multiprotein machineries (ISC, NIF and SUF) assisting Fe-S cluster synthesis in the presence of oxidative stress and shortage of bioavailable iron. However, previous analyses have left unclear the origin and evolution of these systems. Here, we combine exhaustive homology searches with genomic context analysis and phylogeny to precisely identify Fe-S cluster biogenesis systems in over 10,000 archaeal and bacterial genomes. We highlight the existence of two additional and clearly distinct 'minimal' Fe-S cluster assembly machineries, MIS (minimal iron-sulfur) and SMS (SUF-like minimal system), which we infer in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) and we experimentally validate SMS as a bona fide Fe-S cluster biogenesis system. These ancestral systems were kept in archaea whereas they went through stepwise complexification in bacteria to incorporate additional functions for higher Fe-S cluster synthesis efficiency leading to SUF, ISC and NIF. Horizontal gene transfers and losses then shaped the current distribution of these systems, driving ecological adaptations such as the emergence of aerobic lifestyles in archaea. Our results show that dedicated machineries were in place early in evolution to assist Fe-S cluster biogenesis and that their origin is not directly linked to Earth oxygenation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Simon Garcia
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Stress Adaptation and Metabolism in Enterobacteria, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France
| | - Francesca D'Angelo
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Stress Adaptation and Metabolism in Enterobacteria, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France
| | | | - Macha Dussouchaud
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Stress Adaptation and Metabolism in Enterobacteria, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Bouveret
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Stress Adaptation and Metabolism in Enterobacteria, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France
| | - Simonetta Gribaldo
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France.
| | - Frédéric Barras
- Department of Microbiology, Unit Stress Adaptation and Metabolism in Enterobacteria, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Paris, France.
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22
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Lozano-Fernandez J. A Practical Guide to Design and Assess a Phylogenomic Study. Genome Biol Evol 2022; 14:evac129. [PMID: 35946263 PMCID: PMC9452790 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evac129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the last decade, molecular systematics has undergone a change of paradigm as high-throughput sequencing now makes it possible to reconstruct evolutionary relationships using genome-scale datasets. The advent of "big data" molecular phylogenetics provided a battery of new tools for biologists but simultaneously brought new methodological challenges. The increase in analytical complexity comes at the price of highly specific training in computational biology and molecular phylogenetics, resulting very often in a polarized accumulation of knowledge (technical on one side and biological on the other). Interpreting the robustness of genome-scale phylogenetic studies is not straightforward, particularly as new methodological developments have consistently shown that the general belief of "more genes, more robustness" often does not apply, and because there is a range of systematic errors that plague phylogenomic investigations. This is particularly problematic because phylogenomic studies are highly heterogeneous in their methodology, and best practices are often not clearly defined. The main aim of this article is to present what I consider as the ten most important points to take into consideration when planning a well-thought-out phylogenomic study and while evaluating the quality of published papers. The goal is to provide a practical step-by-step guide that can be easily followed by nonexperts and phylogenomic novices in order to assess the technical robustness of phylogenomic studies or improve the experimental design of a project.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesus Lozano-Fernandez
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), University of Barcelona, Avd. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC – Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig marítim de la Barcelona 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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23
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Romei M, Sapriel G, Imbert P, Jamay T, Chomilier J, Lecointre G, Carpentier M. Protein folds as synapomorphies of the tree of life. Evolution 2022; 76:1706-1719. [PMID: 35765784 PMCID: PMC9541633 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Revised: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Several studies showed that folds (topology of protein secondary structures) distribution in proteomes may be a global proxy to build phylogeny. Then, some folds should be synapomorphies (derived characters exclusively shared among taxa). However, previous studies used methods that did not allow synapomorphy identification, which requires congruence analysis of folds as individual characters. Here, we map SCOP folds onto a sample of 210 species across the tree of life (TOL). Congruence is assessed using retention index of each fold for the TOL, and principal component analysis for deeper branches. Using a bicluster mapping approach, we define synapomorphic blocks of folds (SBF) sharing similar presence/absence patterns. Among the 1232 folds, 20% are universally present in our TOL, whereas 54% are reliable synapomorphies. These results are similar with CATH and ECOD databases. Eukaryotes are characterized by a large number of them, and several SBFs clearly support nested eukaryotic clades (divergence times from 1100 to 380 mya). Although clearly separated, the three superkingdoms reveal a strong mosaic pattern. This pattern is consistent with the dual origin of eukaryotes and witness secondary endosymbiosis in their phothosynthetic clades. Our study unveils direct analysis of folds synapomorphies as key characters to unravel evolutionary history of species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Romei
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance,IMPMC (UMR 7590), BiBiP, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, MNHNParisFrance
| | - Guillaume Sapriel
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance,UFR des sciences de la santéUniversité Versailles‐St‐QuentinVersaillesFrance
| | - Pierre Imbert
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance
| | - Théo Jamay
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance
| | | | - Guillaume Lecointre
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance
| | - Mathilde Carpentier
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB UMR 7205)Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, UAParisFrance
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24
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Villain P, Catchpole R, Forterre P, Oberto J, da Cunha V, Basta T. Expanded dataset reveals the emergence and evolution of DNA gyrase in Archaea. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6639447. [PMID: 35811376 PMCID: PMC9348778 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
DNA gyrase is a type II topoisomerase with the unique capacity to introduce negative supercoiling in DNA. In bacteria, DNA gyrase has an essential role in the homeostatic regulation of supercoiling. While ubiquitous in bacteria, DNA gyrase was previously reported to have a patchy distribution in Archaea but its emergent function and evolutionary history in this domain of life remains elusive. In this study, we used phylogenomic approaches and an up-to date sequence dataset to establish global and archaea-specific phylogenies of DNA gyrases. The most parsimonious evolutionary scenario infers that DNA gyrase was introduced into the lineage leading to Euryarchaeal group II via a single horizontal gene transfer from a bacterial donor which we identified as an ancestor of Gracilicutes and/or Terrabacteria. The archaea-focused trees indicate that DNA gyrase spread from Euryarchaeal group II to some DPANN and Asgard lineages via rare horizontal gene transfers. The analysis of successful recent transfers suggests a requirement for syntropic or symbiotic/parasitic relationship between donor and recipient organisms. We further show that the ubiquitous archaeal Topoisomerase VI may have co-evolved with DNA gyrase to allow the division of labor in the management of topological constraints. Collectively, our study reveals the evolutionary history of DNA gyrase in Archaea and provides testable hypotheses to understand the prerequisites for successful establishment of DNA gyrase in a naive archaeon and the associated adaptations in the management of topological constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Villain
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Ryan Catchpole
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Patrick Forterre
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.,Archaeal Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Jacques Oberto
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Violette da Cunha
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Tamara Basta
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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25
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Garcia PS, Gribaldo S, Borrel G. Diversity and Evolution of Methane-Related Pathways in Archaea. Annu Rev Microbiol 2022; 76:727-755. [PMID: 35759872 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-micro-041020-024935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases on Earth and holds an important place in the global carbon cycle. Archaea are the only organisms that use methanogenesis to produce energy and rely on the methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr) complex. Over the last decade, new results have significantly reshaped our view of the diversity of methane-related pathways in the Archaea. Many new lineages that synthesize or use methane have been identified across the whole archaeal tree, leading to a greatly expanded diversity of substrates and mechanisms. In this review, we present the state of the art of these advances and how they challenge established scenarios of the origin and evolution of methanogenesis, and we discuss the potential trajectories that may have led to this strikingly wide range of metabolisms.Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Microbiology, Volume 76 is September 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Simon Garcia
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Paris, France; ,
| | - Simonetta Gribaldo
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Paris, France; ,
| | - Guillaume Borrel
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Paris, France; ,
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26
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Eukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:520-532. [PMID: 35449457 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01733-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria during eukaryogenesis has long been viewed as an adaptive response to the oxygenation of Earth's surface environment, presuming a fundamentally aerobic lifestyle for the free-living bacterial ancestors of mitochondria. This oxygen-centric view has been robustly challenged by recent advances in the Earth and life sciences. While the permanent oxygenation of the atmosphere above trace concentrations is now thought to have occurred 2.2 billion years ago, large parts of the deep ocean remained anoxic until less than 0.5 billion years ago. Neither fossils nor molecular clocks correlate the origin of mitochondria, or eukaryogenesis more broadly, to either of these planetary redox transitions. Instead, mitochondria-bearing eukaryotes are consistently dated to between these two oxygenation events, during an interval of pervasive deep-sea anoxia and variable surface-water oxygenation. The discovery and cultivation of the Asgard archaea has reinforced metabolic evidence that eukaryogenesis was initially mediated by syntrophic H2 exchange between an archaeal host and an α-proteobacterial symbiont living under anoxia. Together, these results temporally, spatially and metabolically decouple the earliest stages of eukaryogenesis from the oxygen content of the surface ocean and atmosphere. Rather than reflecting the ancestral metabolic state, obligate aerobiosis in eukaryotes is most probably derived, having only become globally widespread over the past 1 billion years as atmospheric oxygen approached modern levels.
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27
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Meyer BH, Adam PS, Wagstaff BA, Kolyfetis GE, Probst AJ, Albers SV, Dorfmueller HC. Agl24 is an ancient archaeal homolog of the eukaryotic N-glycan chitobiose synthesis enzymes. eLife 2022; 11:67448. [PMID: 35394422 PMCID: PMC8993221 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Protein N-glycosylation is a post-translational modification found in organisms of all domains of life. The crenarchaeal N-glycosylation begins with the synthesis of a lipid-linked chitobiose core structure, identical to that in Eukaryotes, although the enzyme catalyzing this reaction remains unknown. Here, we report the identification of a thermostable archaeal β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase, named archaeal glycosylation enzyme 24 (Agl24), responsible for the synthesis of the N-glycan chitobiose core. Biochemical characterization confirmed its function as an inverting β-D-GlcNAc-(1→4)-α-D-GlcNAc-diphosphodolichol glycosyltransferase. Substitution of a conserved histidine residue, found also in the eukaryotic and bacterial homologs, demonstrated its functional importance for Agl24. Furthermore, bioinformatics and structural modeling revealed similarities of Agl24 to the eukaryotic Alg14/13 and a distant relation to the bacterial MurG, which are catalyzing the same or a similar reaction, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of Alg14/13 homologs indicates that they are ancient in Eukaryotes, either as a lateral transfer or inherited through eukaryogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin H Meyer
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology (EMB), Aquatic Microbial Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.,Division of Molecular Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom.,Molecular Biology of Archaea, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Panagiotis S Adam
- Group for Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Ben A Wagstaff
- Division of Molecular Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
| | - George E Kolyfetis
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Alexander J Probst
- Centre of Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Sonja V Albers
- Molecular Biology of Archaea, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Helge C Dorfmueller
- Division of Molecular Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
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28
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Jüttner M, Ferreira-Cerca S. Looking through the lens of the ribosome biogenesis evolutionary history: possible implications for archaeal phylogeny and eukaryogenesis. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6547259. [PMID: 35275997 PMCID: PMC8997704 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Our understanding of microbial diversity and its evolutionary relationships has increased substantially over the last decade. Such an understanding has been greatly fueled by culture-independent metagenomics analyses. However, the outcome of some of these studies and their biological and evolutionary implications, such as the origin of the eukaryotic lineage from the recently discovered archaeal Asgard superphylum, is debated. The sequences of the ribosomal constituents are amongst the most used phylogenetic markers. However, the functional consequences underlying the analysed sequence diversity and their putative evolutionary implications are essentially not taken into consideration. Here, we propose to exploit additional functional hallmarks of ribosome biogenesis to help disentangle competing evolutionary hypotheses. Using selected examples, such as the multiple origins of halophily in archaea or the evolutionary relationship between the Asgard archaea and Eukaryotes, we illustrate and discuss how function-aware phylogenetic framework can contribute to refining our understanding of archaeal phylogeny and the origin of eukaryotic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Jüttner
- Regensburg Center for Biochemistry, Biochemistry III - Institute for Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Sébastien Ferreira-Cerca
- Regensburg Center for Biochemistry, Biochemistry III - Institute for Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
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29
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An ancient divide in outer membrane tethering systems in bacteria suggests a mechanism for the diderm-to-monoderm transition. Nat Microbiol 2022; 7:411-422. [PMID: 35246664 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01066-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recent data support the hypothesis that Gram-positive bacteria (monoderms) arose from Gram-negative ones (diderms) through loss of the outer membrane (OM), but how this happened remains unknown. As tethering of the OM is essential for cell envelope stability in diderm bacteria, its destabilization may have been involved in this transition. In the present study, we present an in-depth analysis of the four known main OM-tethering systems across the Tree of Bacteria (ToB). We show that the presence of such systems follows the ToB with a bimodal distribution matching the deepest phylogenetic divergence between Terrabacteria and Gracilicutes. Whereas the lipoprotein peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein (Pal) is restricted to the Gracilicutes, along with a more sporadic occurrence of OmpA, and Braun's lipoprotein is present only in a subclade of Gammaproteobacteria, diderm Terrabacteria display, as the main system, the OmpM protein. We propose an evolutionary scenario whereby OmpM represents a simple, ancestral OM-tethering system that was later replaced by one based on Pal after the emergence of the Lol machinery to deliver lipoproteins to the OM, with OmpA as a possible transition state. We speculate that the existence of only one main OM-tethering system in the Terrabacteria would have allowed the multiple OM losses specifically inferred in this clade through OmpM perturbation, and we provide experimental support for this hypothesis by inactivating all four ompM gene copies in the genetically tractable diderm Firmicute Veillonella parvula. High-resolution imaging and tomogram reconstructions reveal a non-lethal phenotype in which vast portions of the OM detach from the cells, forming huge vesicles with an inflated periplasm shared by multiple dividing cells. Together, our results highlight an ancient shift of OM-tethering systems in bacterial evolution and suggest a mechanism for OM loss and the multiple emergences of the monoderm phenotype from diderm ancestors.
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30
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Moody ERR, Mahendrarajah TA, Dombrowski N, Clark JW, Petitjean C, Offre P, Szöllősi GJ, Spang A, Williams TA. An estimate of the deepest branches of the tree of life from ancient vertically-evolving genes. eLife 2022; 11:66695. [PMID: 35190025 PMCID: PMC8890751 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Core gene phylogenies provide a window into early evolution, but different gene sets and analytical methods have yielded substantially different views of the tree of life. Trees inferred from a small set of universal core genes have typically supported a long branch separating the archaeal and bacterial domains. By contrast, recent analyses of a broader set of non-ribosomal genes have suggested that Archaea may be less divergent from Bacteria, and that estimates of inter-domain distance are inflated due to accelerated evolution of ribosomal proteins along the inter-domain branch. Resolving this debate is key to determining the diversity of the archaeal and bacterial domains, the shape of the tree of life, and our understanding of the early course of cellular evolution. Here, we investigate the evolutionary history of the marker genes key to the debate. We show that estimates of a reduced Archaea-Bacteria (AB) branch length result from inter-domain gene transfers and hidden paralogy in the expanded marker gene set. By contrast, analysis of a broad range of manually curated marker gene datasets from an evenly sampled set of 700 Archaea and Bacteria reveals that current methods likely underestimate the AB branch length due to substitutional saturation and poor model fit; that the best-performing phylogenetic markers tend to support longer inter-domain branch lengths; and that the AB branch lengths of ribosomal and non-ribosomal marker genes are statistically indistinguishable. Furthermore, our phylogeny inferred from the 27 highest-ranked marker genes recovers a clade of DPANN at the base of the Archaea and places the bacterial Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) within Bacteria as the sister group to the Chloroflexota.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edmund R R Moody
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Nina Dombrowski
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - James W Clark
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Celine Petitjean
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Pierre Offre
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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31
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Was the Last Bacterial Common Ancestor a Monoderm after All? Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:genes13020376. [PMID: 35205421 PMCID: PMC8871954 DOI: 10.3390/genes13020376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2021] [Revised: 02/09/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The very nature of the last bacterial common ancestor (LBCA), in particular the characteristics of its cell wall, is a critical issue to understand the evolution of life on earth. Although knowledge of the relationships between bacterial phyla has made progress with the advent of phylogenomics, many questions remain, including on the appearance or disappearance of the outer membrane of diderm bacteria (also called Gram-negative bacteria). The phylogenetic transition between monoderm (Gram-positive bacteria) and diderm bacteria, and the associated peptidoglycan expansion or reduction, requires clarification. Herein, using a phylogenomic tree of cultivated and characterized bacteria as an evolutionary framework and a literature review of their cell-wall characteristics, we used Bayesian ancestral state reconstruction to infer the cell-wall architecture of the LBCA. With the same phylogenomic tree, we further revisited the evolution of the division and cell-wall synthesis (dcw) gene cluster using homology- and model-based methods. Finally, extensive similarity searches were carried out to determine the phylogenetic distribution of the genes involved with the biosynthesis of the outer membrane in diderm bacteria. Quite unexpectedly, our analyses suggest that all cultivated and characterized bacteria might have evolved from a common ancestor with a monoderm cell-wall architecture. If true, this would indicate that the appearance of the outer membrane was not a unique event and that selective forces have led to the repeated adoption of such an architecture. Due to the lack of phenotypic information, our methodology cannot be applied to all extant bacteria. Consequently, our conclusion might change once enough information is made available to allow the use of an even more diverse organism selection.
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32
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Superson A, Battistuzzi F. Exclusion of fast evolving genes or fast evolving sites produces different archaean phylogenies. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2022; 170:107438. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 02/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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33
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Morel B, Schade P, Lutteropp S, Williams TA, Szöllősi GJ, Stamatakis A. SpeciesRax: A tool for maximum likelihood species tree inference from gene family trees under duplication, transfer, and loss. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6503503. [PMID: 35021210 PMCID: PMC8826479 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Species tree inference from gene family trees is becoming increasingly popular because it can account for discordance between the species tree and the corresponding gene family trees. In particular, methods that can account for multiple-copy gene families exhibit potential to leverage paralogy as informative signal. At present, there does not exist any widely adopted inference method for this purpose. Here, we present SpeciesRax, the first maximum likelihood method that can infer a rooted species tree from a set of gene family trees and can account for gene duplication, loss, and transfer events. By explicitly modeling events by which gene trees can depart from the species tree, SpeciesRax leverages the phylogenetic rooting signal in gene trees. SpeciesRax infers species tree branch lengths in units of expected substitutions per site and branch support values via paralogy-aware quartets extracted from the gene family trees. Using both empirical and simulated data sets we show that SpeciesRax is at least as accurate as the best competing methods while being one order of magnitude faster on large data sets at the same time. We used SpeciesRax to infer a biologically plausible rooted phylogeny of the vertebrates comprising 188 species from 31,612 gene families in 1 h using 40 cores. SpeciesRax is available under GNU GPL at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/GeneRax and on BioConda.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benoit Morel
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany.,Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Paul Schade
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Sarah Lutteropp
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- ELTE-MTA "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Dept. Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege M. út 29-33. H-1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany.,Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
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34
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Deconstructing Methanosarcina acetivorans into an acetogenic archaeon. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:2113853119. [PMID: 34992140 PMCID: PMC8764690 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113853119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The reductive acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway is the only carbon fixation pathway that can also be used for energy conservation like it is known for acetogenic bacteria. In methanogenic archaea, this pathway is extended with one route toward acetyl-CoA formation for anabolism and another route toward methane formation for catabolism. Which of these traits is ancestral in evolution has not been resolved. By diverging virtually all substrate carbon from methanogenesis to flow through acetyl-CoA, Methanosarcina acetivorans can be converted to an acetogenic organism. Being able to deconstruct methanogenic into the seemingly simpler acetogenic energy metabolism provides compelling evidence that methanogens are not nearly as metabolically limited as previously thought and suggests that methanogenesis might have evolved from the acetyl-CoA pathway. The reductive acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway, whereby carbon dioxide is sequentially reduced to acetyl-CoA via coenzyme-bound C1 intermediates, is the only autotrophic pathway that can at the same time be the means for energy conservation. A conceptually similar metabolism and a key process in the global carbon cycle is methanogenesis, the biogenic formation of methane. All known methanogenic archaea depend on methanogenesis to sustain growth and use the reductive acetyl-CoA pathway for autotrophic carbon fixation. Here, we converted a methanogen into an acetogen and show that Methanosarcina acetivorans can dispense with methanogenesis for energy conservation completely. By targeted disruption of the methanogenic pathway, followed by adaptive evolution, a strain was created that sustained growth via carbon monoxide–dependent acetogenesis. A minute flux (less than 0.2% of the carbon monoxide consumed) through the methane-liberating reaction remained essential, indicating that currently living methanogens utilize metabolites of this reaction also for anabolic purposes. These results suggest that the metabolic flexibility of methanogenic archaea might be much greater than currently known. Also, our ability to deconstruct a methanogen into an acetogen by merely removing cellular functions provides experimental support for the notion that methanogenesis could have evolved from the reductive acetyl-coenzyme A pathway.
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Aouad M, Flandrois JP, Jauffrit F, Gouy M, Gribaldo S, Brochier-Armanet C. A divide-and-conquer phylogenomic approach based on character supermatrices resolves early steps in the evolution of the Archaea. BMC Ecol Evol 2022; 22:1. [PMID: 34986784 PMCID: PMC8734073 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-021-01952-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The recent rise in cultivation-independent genome sequencing has provided key material to explore uncharted branches of the Tree of Life. This has been particularly spectacular concerning the Archaea, projecting them at the center stage as prominently relevant to understand early stages in evolution and the emergence of fundamental metabolisms as well as the origin of eukaryotes. Yet, resolving deep divergences remains a challenging task due to well-known tree-reconstruction artefacts and biases in extracting robust ancient phylogenetic signal, notably when analyzing data sets including the three Domains of Life. Among the various strategies aimed at mitigating these problems, divide-and-conquer approaches remain poorly explored, and have been primarily based on reconciliation among single gene trees which however notoriously lack ancient phylogenetic signal. Results We analyzed sub-sets of full supermatrices covering the whole Tree of Life with specific taxonomic sampling to robustly resolve different parts of the archaeal phylogeny in light of their current diversity. Our results strongly support the existence and early emergence of two main clades, Cluster I and Cluster II, which we name Ouranosarchaea and Gaiarchaea, and we clarify the placement of important novel archaeal lineages within these two clades. However, the monophyly and branching of the fast evolving nanosized DPANN members remains unclear and worth of further study. Conclusions We inferred a well resolved rooted phylogeny of the Archaea that includes all recently described phyla of high taxonomic rank. This phylogeny represents a valuable reference to study the evolutionary events associated to the early steps of the diversification of the archaeal domain. Beyond the specifics of archaeal phylogeny, our results demonstrate the power of divide-and-conquer approaches to resolve deep phylogenetic relationships, which should be applied to progressively resolve the entire Tree of Life. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-021-01952-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monique Aouad
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France.,École Supérieure de Biologie-Biochimie-Biotechnologies, Université Catholique de Lyon, 10 place des archives, 69002, Lyon, France
| | - Jean-Pierre Flandrois
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Frédéric Jauffrit
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France.,Technology Research Department, Innovation Unit, bioMérieux SA, Marcy Étoile, France
| | - Manolo Gouy
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Simonetta Gribaldo
- Department of Microbiology, Unit "Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell", UMR2001, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
| | - Céline Brochier-Armanet
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France.
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36
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Adam PS, Bornemann TLV, Probst AJ. Progress and Challenges in Studying the Ecophysiology of Archaea. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2522:469-486. [PMID: 36125771 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_32] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
It has been less than two decades since the study of archaeal ecophysiology has become unshackled from the limitations of cultivation and amplicon sequencing through the advent of metagenomics. As a primer to the guide on producing archaeal genomes from metagenomes, we briefly summarize here how different meta'omics, imaging, and wet lab methods have contributed to progress in understanding the ecophysiology of Archaea. We then peer into the history of how our knowledge on two particularly important lineages was assembled: the anaerobic methane and alkane oxidizers, encountered primarily among Euryarchaeota, and the nanosized, mainly parasitic, members of the DPANN superphylum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Panagiotis S Adam
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, UniversitätsstraÔe, Essen, Germany.
| | - Till L V Bornemann
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, UniversitätsstraÔe, Essen, Germany
| | - Alexander J Probst
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, UniversitätsstraÔe, Essen, Germany.
- Centre of Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, UniversitätsstraÔe, Essen, Germany.
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37
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Quantitative Mass Spectrometry by SILAC in Haloferax volcanii. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2522:255-266. [PMID: 36125755 PMCID: PMC9926160 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
The development of mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics methods has been critical in providing new insight about cellular processes and adaptations in all domains of life. While traditional MS-based methods are not inherently quantitative, technologies are now available to overcome this limitation. Of note, stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) is reported as a reliable tool to label proteomes for quantitative MS-based proteomics that is accurate and flexible for multiplexing. The isotopically labeled lysine and arginine are easily incorporated into the proteome of cells auxotrophic for these amino acids. Microorganisms of the domain Archaea provide a fascinating alternative to understanding cellular adaptations and responses to environmental stresses. However, the availability of preferred SILAC-based quantitative analyses is limited. This protocol describes the use of SILAC to quantitatively analyze the proteome of Haloferax volcanii, a mesophilic halophilic archaeon that is easy to grow and requires no special equipment to maintain.
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38
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Bornemann TLV, Adam PS, Probst AJ. Reconstruction of Archaeal Genomes from Short-Read Metagenomes. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2522:487-527. [PMID: 36125772 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_33] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
As the majority of biological diversity remains unexplored and uncultured, investigating it requires culture-independent approaches. Archaea in particular suffer from a multitude of issues that make their culturing problematic, from them being frequently members of the rare biosphere, to low growth rates, to them thriving under very specific and often extreme environmental and community conditions that are difficult to replicate. OMICs techniques are state of the art approaches that allow direct high-throughput investigations of environmental samples at all levels from nucleic acids to proteins, lipids, and secondary metabolites. Metagenomics, as the foundation for other OMICs techniques, facilitates the identification and functional characterization of the microbial community members and can be combined with other methods to provide insights into the microbial activities, both on the RNA and protein levels. In this chapter, we provide a step-by-step workflow for the recovery of archaeal genomes from metagenomes, starting from raw short-read sequences. This workflow can be applied to recover bacterial genomes as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Till L V Bornemann
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
| | - Panagiotis S Adam
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Alexander J Probst
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
- Centre of Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
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39
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Cohen PA, Kodner RB. The earliest history of eukaryotic life: uncovering an evolutionary story through the integration of biological and geological data. Trends Ecol Evol 2021; 37:246-256. [PMID: 34949483 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Revised: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
While there is significant data on eukaryogenesis and the early development of the eukaryotic lineage, major uncertainties regarding their origins and evolution remain, including questions of taxonomy, timing, and paleoecology. Here we examine the origin and diversification of the eukaryotes in the Proterozoic Eon as viewed through fossils, organic biomarkers, molecular clocks, phylogenies, and redox proxies. Our interpretation of the integration of these data suggest that eukaryotes were likely aerobic and established in Proterozoic ecosystems. We argue that we must closely examine and integrate both biological and geological evidence and examine points of agreement and contention to gain new insights into the true origin and early evolutionary history of this vastly important group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Phoebe A Cohen
- Williams College Department of Geosciences, Williamstown, MA, USA.
| | - Robin B Kodner
- Western Washington University Department of Environmental Sciences, Bellingham, WA, USA.
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40
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Martinez-Gutierrez CA, Aylward FO. Phylogenetic Signal, Congruence, and Uncertainty across Bacteria and Archaea. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:5514-5527. [PMID: 34436605 PMCID: PMC8662615 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Reconstruction of the Tree of Life is a central goal in biology. Although numerous novel phyla of bacteria and archaea have recently been discovered, inconsistent phylogenetic relationships are routinely reported, and many inter-phylum and inter-domain evolutionary relationships remain unclear. Here, we benchmark different marker genes often used in constructing multidomain phylogenetic trees of bacteria and archaea and present a set of marker genes that perform best for multidomain trees constructed from concatenated alignments. We use recently-developed Tree Certainty metrics to assess the confidence of our results and to obviate the complications of traditional bootstrap-based metrics. Given the vastly disparate number of genomes available for different phyla of bacteria and archaea, we also assessed the impact of taxon sampling on multidomain tree construction. Our results demonstrate that biases between the representation of different taxonomic groups can dramatically impact the topology of resulting trees. Inspection of our highest-quality tree supports the division of most bacteria into Terrabacteria and Gracilicutes, with Thermatogota and Synergistota branching earlier from these superphyla. This tree also supports the inclusion of the Patescibacteria within the Terrabacteria as a sister group to the Chloroflexota instead of as a basal-branching lineage. For the Archaea, our tree supports three monophyletic lineages (DPANN, Euryarchaeota, and TACK/Asgard), although we note the basal placement of the DPANN may still represent an artifact caused by biased sequence composition. Our findings provide a robust and standardized framework for multidomain phylogenetic reconstruction that can be used to evaluate inter-phylum relationships and assess uncertainty in conflicting topologies of the Tree of Life.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Frank O Aylward
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
- Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
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41
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Jiao JY, Fu L, Hua ZS, Liu L, Salam N, Liu PF, Lv AP, Wu G, Xian WD, Zhu Q, Zhou EM, Fang BZ, Oren A, Hedlund BP, Jiang HC, Knight R, Cheng L, Li WJ. Insight into the function and evolution of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in Actinobacteria. THE ISME JOURNAL 2021; 15:3005-3018. [PMID: 33953361 PMCID: PMC8443620 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-00935-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2020] [Revised: 02/07/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Carbon fixation by chemoautotrophic microbes such as homoacetogens had a major impact on the transition from the inorganic to the organic world. Recent reports have shown the presence of genes for key enzymes associated with the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) in the phylum Actinobacteria, which adds to the diversity of potential autotrophs. Here, we compiled 42 actinobacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from new and existing metagenomic datasets and propose three novel classes, Ca. Aquicultoria, Ca. Geothermincolia and Ca. Humimicrobiia. Most members of these classes contain genes coding for acetogenesis through the WLP, as well as a variety of hydrogenases (NiFe groups 1a and 3b-3d; FeFe group C; NiFe group 4-related hydrogenases). We show that the three classes acquired the hydrogenases independently, yet the carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase complex (CODH/ACS) was apparently present in their last common ancestor and was inherited vertically. Furthermore, the Actinobacteria likely donated genes for CODH/ACS to multiple lineages within Nitrospirae, Deltaproteobacteria (Desulfobacterota), and Thermodesulfobacteria through multiple horizontal gene transfer events. Finally, we show the apparent growth of Ca. Geothermincolia and H2-dependent acetate production in hot spring enrichment cultures with or without the methanogenesis inhibitor 2-bromoethanesulfonate, which is consistent with the proposed homoacetogenic metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-Yu Jiao
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Li Fu
- Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy, Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, Chengdu, PR China
| | - Zheng-Shuang Hua
- Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
| | - Lan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Nimaichand Salam
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Peng-Fei Liu
- Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy, Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, Chengdu, PR China
| | - Ai-Ping Lv
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Geng Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, PR China
| | - Wen-Dong Xian
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Qiyun Zhu
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - En-Min Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Bao-Zhu Fang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
- State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, PR China
| | - Aharon Oren
- The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Brian P Hedlund
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
- Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Hong-Chen Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, PR China
| | - Rob Knight
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Lei Cheng
- Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy, Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, Chengdu, PR China.
| | - Wen-Jun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China.
- State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, PR China.
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42
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Feng Y, Neri U, Gosselin S, Louyakis AS, Papke RT, Gophna U, Gogarten JP. The Evolutionary Origins of Extreme Halophilic Archaeal Lineages. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:6320066. [PMID: 34255041 PMCID: PMC8350355 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Interest and controversy surrounding the evolutionary origins of extremely halophilic Archaea has increased in recent years, due to the discovery and characterization of the Nanohaloarchaea and the Methanonatronarchaeia. Initial attempts in explaining the evolutionary placement of the two new lineages in relation to the classical Halobacteria (also referred to as Haloarchaea) resulted in hypotheses that imply the new groups share a common ancestor with the Haloarchaea. However, more recent analyses have led to a shift: the Nanohaloarchaea have been largely accepted as being a member of the DPANN superphylum, outside of the euryarchaeota; whereas the Methanonatronarchaeia have been placed near the base of the Methanotecta (composed of the class II methanogens, the Halobacteriales, and Archaeoglobales). These opposing hypotheses have far-reaching implications on the concepts of convergent evolution (distantly related groups evolve similar strategies for survival), genome reduction, and gene transfer. In this work, we attempt to resolve these conflicts with phylogenetic and phylogenomic data. We provide a robust taxonomic sampling of Archaeal genomes that spans the Asgardarchaea, TACK Group, euryarchaeota, and the DPANN superphylum. In addition, we assembled draft genomes from seven new representatives of the Nanohaloarchaea from distinct geographic locations. Phylogenies derived from these data imply that the highly conserved ATP synthase catalytic/noncatalytic subunits of Nanohaloarchaea share a sisterhood relationship with the Haloarchaea. We also employ a novel gene family distance clustering strategy which shows this sisterhood relationship is not likely the result of a recent gene transfer. In addition, we present and evaluate data that argue for and against the monophyly of the DPANN superphylum, in particular, the inclusion of the Nanohaloarchaea in DPANN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yutian Feng
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
| | - Uri Neri
- Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Sean Gosselin
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
| | - Artemis S Louyakis
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
| | - R Thane Papke
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
| | - Uri Gophna
- Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Johann Peter Gogarten
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.,Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
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43
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Martin HS, Podolsky KA, Devaraj NK. Probing the Role of Chirality in Phospholipid Membranes. Chembiochem 2021; 22:3148-3157. [PMID: 34227722 DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202100232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Revised: 07/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Nucleotides, amino acids, sugars, and lipids are almost ubiquitously homochiral within individual cells on Earth. While oligonucleotides and proteins exist as one natural chirality throughout the tree of life, two stereoisomers of phospholipids have separately emerged in archaea and bacteria, an evolutionary divergence known as "the lipid divide". Within this review, we focus on the emergence of phospholipid homochirality and compare the stability of synthetic homochiral and heterochiral membranes in vitro. We discuss chemical probes designed to study the stereospecific interactions of lipid membranes in vitro. Overall, we aim to highlight studies that help elucidate the determinants of stereospecific interactions between lipids, peptides, and small molecule ligands. Continued work in understanding the drivers of favorable interactions between chiral molecules and biological membranes will lead to the design of increasingly selective chemical tools for bioorthogonal labeling of lipid membranes and safer membrane-associating pharmaceuticals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah S Martin
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Kira A Podolsky
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Neal K Devaraj
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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44
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A standardized archaeal taxonomy for the Genome Taxonomy Database. Nat Microbiol 2021; 6:946-959. [PMID: 34155373 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-021-00918-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 164] [Impact Index Per Article: 54.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The accrual of genomic data from both cultured and uncultured microorganisms provides new opportunities to develop systematic taxonomies based on evolutionary relationships. Previously, we established a bacterial taxonomy through the Genome Taxonomy Database. Here, we propose a standardized archaeal taxonomy that is derived from a 122-concatenated-protein phylogeny that resolves polyphyletic groups and normalizes ranks based on relative evolutionary divergence. The resulting archaeal taxonomy, which forms part of the Genome Taxonomy Database, is stable for a range of phylogenetic variables including marker gene selection, inference methods, corrections for rate heterogeneity and compositional bias, tree rooting scenarios and expansion of the genome database. Rank normalization is shown to robustly correct for substitution rates varying up to 30-fold using simulated datasets. Taxonomic curation follows the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes while taking into account proposals to formally recognize the rank of phylum and to use genome sequences as type material. This taxonomy is based on 2,392 archaeal genomes, 93.3% of which required one or more changes to their existing taxonomy, mainly owing to incomplete classification. We identify 16 archaeal phyla and reclassify 3 major monophyletic units from the former Euryarchaeota and one phylum that unites the Thaumarchaeota-Aigarchaeota-Crenarchaeota-Korarchaeota (TACK) superphylum into a single phylum.
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45
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Coleman GA, Davín AA, Mahendrarajah TA, Szánthó LL, Spang A, Hugenholtz P, Szöllősi GJ, Williams TA. A rooted phylogeny resolves early bacterial evolution. Science 2021; 372:372/6542/eabe0511. [PMID: 33958449 DOI: 10.1126/science.abe0511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 11/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
A rooted bacterial tree is necessary to understand early evolution, but the position of the root is contested. Here, we model the evolution of 11,272 gene families to identify the root, extent of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and the nature of the last bacterial common ancestor (LBCA). Our analyses root the tree between the major clades Terrabacteria and Gracilicutes and suggest that LBCA was a free-living flagellated, rod-shaped double-membraned organism. Contrary to recent proposals, our analyses reject a basal placement of the Candidate Phyla Radiation, which instead branches sister to Chloroflexota within Terrabacteria. While most gene families (92%) have evidence of HGT, overall, two-thirds of gene transmissions have been vertical, suggesting that a rooted tree provides a meaningful frame of reference for interpreting bacterial evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gareth A Coleman
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Adrián A Davín
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, 1790 AB Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, 1790 AB Den Burg, Netherlands.,Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. .,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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Berkemer SJ, McGlynn SE. A New Analysis of Archaea-Bacteria Domain Separation: Variable Phylogenetic Distance and the Tempo of Early Evolution. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 37:2332-2340. [PMID: 32316034 PMCID: PMC7403611 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparative genomics and molecular phylogenetics are foundational for understanding biological evolution. Although many studies have been made with the aim of understanding the genomic contents of early life, uncertainty remains. A study by Weiss et al. (Weiss MC, Sousa FL, Mrnjavac N, Neukirchen S, Roettger M, Nelson-Sathi S, Martin WF. 2016. The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor. Nat Microbiol. 1(9):16116.) identified a number of protein families in the last universal common ancestor of archaea and bacteria (LUCA) which were not found in previous works. Here, we report new research that suggests the clustering approaches used in this previous study undersampled protein families, resulting in incomplete phylogenetic trees which do not reflect protein family evolution. Phylogenetic analysis of protein families which include more sequence homologs rejects a simple LUCA hypothesis based on phylogenetic separation of the bacterial and archaeal domains for a majority of the previously identified LUCA proteins (∼82%). To supplement limitations of phylogenetic inference derived from incompletely populated orthologous groups and to test the hypothesis of a period of rapid evolution preceding the separation of the domains, we compared phylogenetic distances both within and between domains, for thousands of orthologous groups. We find a substantial diversity of interdomain versus intradomain branch lengths, even among protein families which exhibit a single domain separating branch and are thought to be associated with the LUCA. Additionally, phylogenetic trees with long interdomain branches relative to intradomain branches are enriched in information categories of protein families in comparison to those associated with metabolic functions. These results provide a new view of protein family evolution and temper claims about the phenotype and habitat of the LUCA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah J Berkemer
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, University Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Competence Center for Scalable Data Services and Solutions, Dresden/Leipzig, Germany
| | - Shawn E McGlynn
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan.,Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA.,RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS), Saitama, Japan
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Linard B, Ebersberger I, McGlynn SE, Glover N, Mochizuki T, Patricio M, Lecompte O, Nevers Y, Thomas PD, Gabaldón T, Sonnhammer E, Dessimoz C, Uchiyama I. Ten Years of Collaborative Progress in the Quest for Orthologs. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:3033-3045. [PMID: 33822172 PMCID: PMC8321534 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Revised: 02/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Accurate determination of the evolutionary relationships between genes is a foundational challenge in biology. Homology-evolutionary relatedness-is in many cases readily determined based on sequence similarity analysis. By contrast, whether or not two genes directly descended from a common ancestor by a speciation event (orthologs) or duplication event (paralogs) is more challenging, yet provides critical information on the history of a gene. Since 2009, this task has been the focus of the Quest for Orthologs (QFO) Consortium. The sixth QFO meeting took place in Okazaki, Japan in conjunction with the 67th National Institute for Basic Biology conference. Here, we report recent advances, applications, and oncoming challenges that were discussed during the conference. Steady progress has been made toward standardization and scalability of new and existing tools. A feature of the conference was the presentation of a panel of accessible tools for phylogenetic profiling and several developments to bring orthology beyond the gene unit-from domains to networks. This meeting brought into light several challenges to come: leveraging orthology computations to get the most of the incoming avalanche of genomic data, integrating orthology from domain to biological network levels, building better gene models, and adapting orthology approaches to the broad evolutionary and genomic diversity recognized in different forms of life and viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Linard
- LIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France.,SPYGEN, Le Bourget-du-Lac, France
| | - Ingo Ebersberger
- Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.,Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (S-BIKF), Frankfurt, Germany.,LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Shawn E McGlynn
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan.,Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Natasha Glover
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Tomohiro Mochizuki
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mateus Patricio
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Odile Lecompte
- Department of Computer Science, ICube, UMR 7357, University of Strasbourg, CNRS, Fédération de Médecine Translationnelle de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Yannis Nevers
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Paul D Thomas
- Division of Bioinformatics, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Toni Gabaldón
- Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BCS-CNS), Jordi Girona, Barcelona, Spain.,Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Erik Sonnhammer
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, Solna, Sweden
| | - Christophe Dessimoz
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom.,Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Ikuo Uchiyama
- Department of Theoretical Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
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48
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Williams TA, Schrempf D, Szöllősi GJ, Cox CJ, Foster PG, Embley TM. Inferring the deep past from molecular data. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:6192802. [PMID: 33772552 PMCID: PMC8175050 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
There is an expectation that analyses of molecular sequences might be able to distinguish between alternative hypotheses for ancient relationships, but the phylogenetic methods used and types of data analyzed are of critical importance in any attempt to recover historical signal. Here, we discuss some common issues that can influence the topology of trees obtained when using overly simple models to analyze molecular data that often display complicated patterns of sequence heterogeneity. To illustrate our discussion, we have used three examples of inferred relationships which have changed radically as models and methods of analysis have improved. In two of these examples, the sister-group relationship between thermophilic Thermus and mesophilic Deinococcus, and the position of long-branch Microsporidia among eukaryotes, we show that recovering what is now generally considered to be the correct tree is critically dependent on the fit between model and data. In the third example, the position of eukaryotes in the tree of life, the hypothesis that is currently supported by the best available methods is fundamentally different from the classical view of relationships between major cellular domains. Since heterogeneity appears to be pervasive and varied among all molecular sequence data, and even the best available models can still struggle to deal with some problems, the issues we discuss are generally relevant to phylogenetic analyses. It remains essential to maintain a critical attitude to all trees as hypotheses of relationship that may change with more data and better methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Cymon J Cox
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, Gambelas, 8005-319 Faro, Portugal
| | - Peter G Foster
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
| | - T Martin Embley
- Biosciences Institute, Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, United Kingdom
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Xavier JC, Gerhards RE, Wimmer JLE, Brueckner J, Tria FDK, Martin WF. The metabolic network of the last bacterial common ancestor. Commun Biol 2021; 4:413. [PMID: 33772086 PMCID: PMC7997952 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-01918-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2020] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteria are the most abundant cells on Earth. They are generally regarded as ancient, but due to striking diversity in their metabolic capacities and widespread lateral gene transfer, the physiology of the first bacteria is unknown. From 1089 reference genomes of bacterial anaerobes, we identified 146 protein families that trace to the last bacterial common ancestor, LBCA, and form the conserved predicted core of its metabolic network, which requires only nine genes to encompass all universal metabolites. Our results indicate that LBCA performed gluconeogenesis towards cell wall synthesis, and had numerous RNA modifications and multifunctional enzymes that permitted life with low gene content. In accordance with recent findings for LUCA and LACA, analyses of thousands of individual gene trees indicate that LBCA was rod-shaped and the first lineage to diverge from the ancestral bacterial stem was most similar to modern Clostridia, followed by other autotrophs that harbor the acetyl-CoA pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana C Xavier
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
| | - Rebecca E Gerhards
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Jessica L E Wimmer
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Julia Brueckner
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Fernando D K Tria
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - William F Martin
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
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50
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Ewens SD, Gomberg AFS, Barnum TP, Borton MA, Carlson HK, Wrighton KC, Coates JD. The diversity and evolution of microbial dissimilatory phosphite oxidation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2020024118. [PMID: 33688048 PMCID: PMC7980464 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020024118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Phosphite is the most energetically favorable chemotrophic electron donor known, with a half-cell potential (Eo') of -650 mV for the PO43-/PO33- couple. Since the discovery of microbial dissimilatory phosphite oxidation (DPO) in 2000, the environmental distribution, evolution, and diversity of DPO microorganisms (DPOMs) have remained enigmatic, as only two species have been identified. Here, metagenomic sequencing of phosphite-enriched microbial communities enabled the genome reconstruction and metabolic characterization of 21 additional DPOMs. These DPOMs spanned six classes of bacteria, including the Negativicutes, Desulfotomaculia, Synergistia, Syntrophia, Desulfobacteria, and Desulfomonilia_A Comparing the DPO genes from the genomes of enriched organisms with over 17,000 publicly available metagenomes revealed the global existence of this metabolism in diverse anoxic environments, including wastewaters, sediments, and subsurface aquifers. Despite their newfound environmental and taxonomic diversity, metagenomic analyses suggested that the typical DPOM is a chemolithoautotroph that occupies low-oxygen environments and specializes in phosphite oxidation coupled to CO2 reduction. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the DPO genes form a highly conserved cluster that likely has ancient origins predating the split of monoderm and diderm bacteria. By coupling microbial cultivation strategies with metagenomics, these studies highlighted the unsampled metabolic versatility latent in microbial communities. We have uncovered the unexpected prevalence, diversity, biochemical specialization, and ancient origins of a unique metabolism central to the redox cycling of phosphorus, a primary nutrient on Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophia D Ewens
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Energy & Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Alexa F S Gomberg
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Tyler P Barnum
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Mikayla A Borton
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
| | - Hans K Carlson
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Kelly C Wrighton
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
| | - John D Coates
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
- Energy & Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
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