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The Oxymonad Genome Displays Canonical Eukaryotic Complexity in the Absence of a Mitochondrion

Karnkowska, Anna ; Treitli, Sebastian C. ; Brzoň, Ondřej ; Novák, Lukáš ; Vacek, Vojtěch ; Soukal, Petr ; Barlow, Lael D. ; Herman, Emily K. ; Pipaliya, Shweta V. and Pánek, Tomáš , et al. (2019) In Molecular biology and evolution 36(10). p.2292-2312
Abstract

The discovery that the protist Monocercomonoides exilis completely lacks mitochondria demonstrates that these organelles are not absolutely essential to eukaryotic cells. However, the degree to which the metabolism and cellular systems of this organism have adapted to the loss of mitochondria is unknown. Here, we report an extensive analysis of the M. exilis genome to address this question. Unexpectedly, we find that M. exilis genome structure and content is similar in complexity to other eukaryotes and less "reduced" than genomes of some other protists from the Metamonada group to which it belongs. Furthermore, the predicted cytoskeletal systems, the organization of endomembrane systems, and biosynthetic pathways also display canonical... (More)

The discovery that the protist Monocercomonoides exilis completely lacks mitochondria demonstrates that these organelles are not absolutely essential to eukaryotic cells. However, the degree to which the metabolism and cellular systems of this organism have adapted to the loss of mitochondria is unknown. Here, we report an extensive analysis of the M. exilis genome to address this question. Unexpectedly, we find that M. exilis genome structure and content is similar in complexity to other eukaryotes and less "reduced" than genomes of some other protists from the Metamonada group to which it belongs. Furthermore, the predicted cytoskeletal systems, the organization of endomembrane systems, and biosynthetic pathways also display canonical eukaryotic complexity. The only apparent preadaptation that permitted the loss of mitochondria was the acquisition of the SUF system for Fe-S cluster assembly and the loss of glycine cleavage system. Changes in other systems, including in amino acid metabolism and oxidative stress response, were coincident with the loss of mitochondria but are likely adaptations to the microaerophilic and endobiotic niche rather than the mitochondrial loss per se. Apart from the lack of mitochondria and peroxisomes, we show that M. exilis is a fully elaborated eukaryotic cell that is a promising model system in which eukaryotic cell biology can be investigated in the absence of mitochondria.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Amitochondrial eukaryote, Cell biology, Monocercomonoides, oxymonads, protist genomics
in
Molecular biology and evolution
editor
Battistuzzi, Fabia Ursula
volume
36
issue
10
pages
2292 - 2312
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85072628931
  • pmid:31387118
ISSN
0737-4038
DOI
10.1093/molbev/msz147
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
134a6c50-1637-4f2e-b8b8-a0eefc59716b
date added to LUP
2020-10-23 10:49:00
date last changed
2024-05-29 22:16:48
@article{134a6c50-1637-4f2e-b8b8-a0eefc59716b,
  abstract     = {{<p>The discovery that the protist Monocercomonoides exilis completely lacks mitochondria demonstrates that these organelles are not absolutely essential to eukaryotic cells. However, the degree to which the metabolism and cellular systems of this organism have adapted to the loss of mitochondria is unknown. Here, we report an extensive analysis of the M. exilis genome to address this question. Unexpectedly, we find that M. exilis genome structure and content is similar in complexity to other eukaryotes and less "reduced" than genomes of some other protists from the Metamonada group to which it belongs. Furthermore, the predicted cytoskeletal systems, the organization of endomembrane systems, and biosynthetic pathways also display canonical eukaryotic complexity. The only apparent preadaptation that permitted the loss of mitochondria was the acquisition of the SUF system for Fe-S cluster assembly and the loss of glycine cleavage system. Changes in other systems, including in amino acid metabolism and oxidative stress response, were coincident with the loss of mitochondria but are likely adaptations to the microaerophilic and endobiotic niche rather than the mitochondrial loss per se. Apart from the lack of mitochondria and peroxisomes, we show that M. exilis is a fully elaborated eukaryotic cell that is a promising model system in which eukaryotic cell biology can be investigated in the absence of mitochondria.</p>}},
  author       = {{Karnkowska, Anna and Treitli, Sebastian C. and Brzoň, Ondřej and Novák, Lukáš and Vacek, Vojtěch and Soukal, Petr and Barlow, Lael D. and Herman, Emily K. and Pipaliya, Shweta V. and Pánek, Tomáš and Žihala, David and Petrželková, Romana and Butenko, Anzhelika and Eme, Laura and Stairs, Courtney W. and Roger, Andrew J. and Eliáš, Marek and Dacks, Joel B. and Hampl, Vladimír}},
  editor       = {{Battistuzzi, Fabia Ursula}},
  issn         = {{0737-4038}},
  keywords     = {{Amitochondrial eukaryote; Cell biology; Monocercomonoides, oxymonads, protist genomics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{2292--2312}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Molecular biology and evolution}},
  title        = {{The Oxymonad Genome Displays Canonical Eukaryotic Complexity in the Absence of a Mitochondrion}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz147}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/molbev/msz147}},
  volume       = {{36}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}