Chlamydial contribution to anaerobic metabolism during eukaryotic evolution
Open Access
- 28 August 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science Advances
- Vol. 6 (35), eabb7258
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb7258
Abstract
The origin of eukaryotes is a major open question in evolutionary biology. Multiple hypotheses posit that eukaryotes likely evolved from a syntrophic relationship between an archaeon and an alphaproteobacterium based on H2 exchange. However, there are no strong indications that modern eukaryotic H2 metabolism originated from archaea or alphaproteobacteria. Here, we present evidence for the origin of H2 metabolism genes in eukaryotes from an ancestor of the Anoxychlamydiales—a group of anaerobic chlamydiae, newly described here, from marine sediments. Among Chlamydiae, these bacteria uniquely encode genes for H2 metabolism and other anaerobiosis-associated pathways. Phylogenetic analyses of several components of H2 metabolism reveal that Anoxychlamydiales homologs are the closest relatives to eukaryotic sequences. We propose that an ancestor of the Anoxychlamydiales contributed these key genes during the evolution of eukaryotes, supporting a mosaic evolutionary origin of eukaryotic metabolism.Keywords
Funding Information
- European Molecular Biology Organization (ALTF-997-2015)
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (704263)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PDF 487174-2016)
- European Research Council (310039)
- European Research Council (817834)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2016-03559)
- Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (WISE fellowship)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2015-04959)
- Stiftelse for strategisk forskning (SSF-FFL5)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2018-06609)
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