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Evolution of early eukaryotic cells: genomes, proteomes, and compartments

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Abstract

Eukaryotes arose from an endosymbiotic association of an α-proteobacterium-like organism (the ancestor of mitochondria) with a host cell (lacking mitochondria or plastids). Plants arose by the addition of a cyanobacterium-like endosymbiont (the ancestor of plastids) to the two-member association. Each member of the association brought a unique internal environment and a unique genome. Analyses of recently acquired genomic sequences with newly developed algorithms have revealed (a) that the number of endosymbiont genes that remain in eukaryotic cells—principally in the nucleus—is surprisingly large, (b) that protein products of a large number of genes (or their descendents) that entered the association in the genome of the host are now directed to an organelle derived from an endosymbiont, and (c) that protein products of genes traceable to endosymbiont genomes are directed to the nucleo-cytoplasmic compartment. Consideration of these remarkable findings has led to the present suggestion that contemporary eukaryotic cells evolved through continual chance relocation and testing of genes as well as combinations of gene products and biochemical processes in each unique cell compartment derived from a member of the eukaryotic association. Most of these events occurred during about 300 million years, or so, before contemporary forms of eukaryotic cells appear in the fossil record; they continue today.

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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Colleen Cavanaugh and Andrew Knoll for discussions and very helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

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  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Lawrence Bogorad

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Correspondence to Lawrence Bogorad.

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Lawrence Bogorad—Deceased. This manuscript was completed by L. Bogorad just prior to his death in December, 2003. The insights contained within represent his last thoughts on endosymbiosis and organelle evolution—topics that formed a life-long intellectual passion.

For purposes of communication contact Steven R. Rodermel, Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, 457 Bessey Hall, Ames, IA 50011, USA, e-mail: rodermel@iastate.edu

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Bogorad, L. Evolution of early eukaryotic cells: genomes, proteomes, and compartments. Photosynth Res 95, 11–21 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-007-9236-3

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