Month: September 2022

ADVANTAGE. "Gene loss can provide a selective advantage by conserving an organism’s limiting resources, provided the gene’s function is dispensable." http://mbio.asm.org/content/3/2/e00036-12.short View in LinkedIn

FROM SYMBIOSIS TO ORGANELLE. "Reductive evolution of endosymbionts can yield bacteria with tiny genomes consisting of 150–200 genes and lacking some essential genes such as those encoding several aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, which is suggestive of an ongoing transition to an organelle state." A snapshot in real time of how mitochondria and chloroplasts evolved. https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

BACTERIA-ANT SYMBIOSIS. "Blochmannia, obligate endosymbionts of ants of the tribe Camponotini, have coevolved with their ant hosts for ∼40 MY. Reconstructed gene content of the last common ancestor (LCA) of these six Blochmannia genomes is reduced (690 protein coding genes), consistent with rapid gene loss soon after establishment of the symbiosis....has affected cellular functions and metabolic pathways, including DNA replication and repair, vitamin biosynthesis and membrane proteins." https://lnkd.in/erNiBXs View in LinkedIn

"PHYTOPLASMAS are plant pathogenic bacteria associated with devastating damage to over 700 plant species worldwide. Phytoplasma genomes, however, encode even fewer metabolically functional proteins than do mycoplasma genomes, which were previously thought to have the minimum possible gene set." https://lnkd.in/eEP5JyK View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL CELL. "In 2007 Venter transplanted the genome of one Mycoplasma bacterium into another. Venter and his colleagues also synthesized a trimmed down, artificial version of Mycoplasma's DNA, a project known as the Minimal Genome Project. Attempts to implant the synthetic DNA all failed, until now." A drive to create a universal cell recipient for synthetic life. https://lnkd.in/e9ZJKP5 View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL TRANSFER. "These genomic features suggest that phytoplasmas are highly dependent on metabolic compounds from their hosts. The functions of other genes in the phytoplasmal plasmids remain unknown. However, some genes are apparently related to adaptation to the insect host. Phytoplasmas are transmitted by specific insect species in a persistent manner." https://lnkd.in/eEP5JyK View in LinkedIn

COMPLEX HOST-SWITCHING. "Since phytoplasmas are endocellular parasites that lack a cell wall, their membrane proteins and secreted proteins function directly in the host cell. One-third of the genes is affected during host switching between plant and insect, suggesting that the phytoplasma alters its gene expression in response to its host and may use transporters, membrane proteins, secreted proteins, and metabolic enzymes in a host-specific manner." https://lnkd.in/eEP5JyK View in LinkedIn

GENETIC OUTSOURCING. "Phytoplasma genomes lack the pentose phosphate pathway genes and genes encoding F1Fo-type ATP synthase. Therefore, ATP synthesis in phytoplasmas is strongly dependent on glycolysis instead of ATP synthase." Read the well-characterized pathways changed in different host relationships. ATP synthase generates all the energy needs of a cell, a truly radical outsourcing. https://lnkd.in/eEP5JyK View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE LOSS. "Gene length reduction and massive loss of metabolic capacity in the common ancestor was accompanied by the evolution of novel microsporidian-specific protein families, whose conservation among microsporidians, against a background of reductive evolution, suggests they may have important functions in their parasitic lifestyle." https://lnkd.in/eDniEh6 View in LinkedIn

TWO STEP CHANGE. "Microsporidian genome evolution thus appears to have proceeded in at least two major steps: an ancestral remodelling of the proteome upon transition to intracellular parasitism that involved reduction but also selective expansion, followed by a secondary compaction of genome architecture in some, but not all, lineages." https://lnkd.in/eDniEh6 View in LinkedIn