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de Graaf RM, Ricard G, van Alen TA, Duarte I, Dutilh BE, Burgtorf C, Kuiper JWP, van der Staay GWM, Tielens AGM, Huynen MA, Hackstein JHP. The organellar genome and metabolic potential of the hydrogen-producing mitochondrion of Nyctotherus ovalis. Mol Biol Evol 2011; 28:2379-91. [PMID: 21378103 PMCID: PMC3144386 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msr059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
It is generally accepted that hydrogenosomes (hydrogen-producing organelles) evolved from a mitochondrial ancestor. However, until recently, only indirect evidence for this hypothesis was available. Here, we present the almost complete genome of the hydrogen-producing mitochondrion of the anaerobic ciliate Nyctotherus ovalis and show that, except for the notable absence of genes encoding electron transport chain components of Complexes III, IV, and V, it has a gene content similar to the mitochondrial genomes of aerobic ciliates. Analysis of the genome of the hydrogen-producing mitochondrion, in combination with that of more than 9,000 genomic DNA and cDNA sequences, allows a preliminary reconstruction of the organellar metabolism. The sequence data indicate that N. ovalis possesses hydrogen-producing mitochondria that have a truncated, two step (Complex I and II) electron transport chain that uses fumarate as electron acceptor. In addition, components of an extensive protein network for the metabolism of amino acids, defense against oxidative stress, mitochondrial protein synthesis, mitochondrial protein import and processing, and transport of metabolites across the mitochondrial membrane were identified. Genes for MPV17 and ACN9, two hypothetical proteins linked to mitochondrial disease in humans, were also found. The inferred metabolism is remarkably similar to the organellar metabolism of the phylogenetically distant anaerobic Stramenopile Blastocystis. Notably, the Blastocystis organelle and that of the related flagellate Proteromonas lacertae also lack genes encoding components of Complexes III, IV, and V. Thus, our data show that the hydrogenosomes of N. ovalis are highly specialized hydrogen-producing mitochondria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rob M de Graaf
- Department of Evolutionary Microbiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Abstract
The discovery of mitochondrion-type genes in organisms thought to lack mitochondria led to the demonstration that hydrogenosomes share a common ancestry with mitochondria, as well as the discovery of mitosomes in multiple eukaryotic lineages. No examples of examined eukaryotes lacking a mitochondrion-related organelle exist, implying that the endosymbiont that gave rise to the mitochondrion was present in the first eukaryote. These organelles, known as hydrogenosomes, mitosomes, or mitochondrion-like organelles, are typically reduced, both structurally and biochemically, relative to classical mitochondria. However, despite their diversification and adaptation to different niches, all appear to play a role in Fe-S cluster assembly, as observed for mitochondria. Although evidence supports the use of common protein targeting mechanisms in the biogenesis of these diverse organelles, divergent features are also apparent. This review examines the metabolism and biogenesis of these organelles in divergent unicellular microbes, with a focus on parasitic protists.
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Affiliation(s)
- April M Shiflett
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1489, USA
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Abstract
Lipoic acid [(R)-5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanoic acid] is an enzyme cofactor required for intermediate metabolism in free-living cells. Lipoic acid was discovered nearly 60 years ago and was shown to be covalently attached to proteins in several multicomponent dehydrogenases. Cells can acquire lipoate (the deprotonated charge form of lipoic acid that dominates at physiological pH) through either scavenging or de novo synthesis. Microbial pathogens implement these basic lipoylation strategies with a surprising variety of adaptations which can affect pathogenesis and virulence. Similarly, lipoylated proteins are responsible for effects beyond their classical roles in catalysis. These include roles in oxidative defense, bacterial sporulation, and gene expression. This review surveys the role of lipoate metabolism in bacterial, fungal, and protozoan pathogens and how these organisms have employed this metabolism to adapt to niche environments.
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Pérez-Brocal V, Shahar-Golan R, Clark CG. A linear molecule with two large inverted repeats: the mitochondrial genome of the stramenopile Proteromonas lacertae. Genome Biol Evol 2010; 2:257-66. [PMID: 20624730 PMCID: PMC2997541 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evq015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Mitochondrial evolution has given rise to a complex array of organelles, ranging from classical aerobic mitochondria to mitochondrial remnants known as hydrogenosomes and mitosomes. The latter are found in anaerobic eukaryotes, and these highly derived organelles often retain only scant evidence of their mitochondrial origins. Intermediate evolutionary stages have also been reported as facultatively or even strictly anaerobic mitochondria, and hydrogenosomes that still retain some mitochondrial features. However, the diversity among these organelles with transitional features remains rather unclear and barely studied. Here, we report the sequence, structure, and gene content of the mitochondrial DNA of the anaerobic stramenopile Proteromonas lacertae. It has a linear genome with a unique central region flanked by two identical large inverted repeats containing numerous genes and “telomeres” with short inverted repeats. Comparison with the organelle genome of the strictly anaerobic human parasite Blastocystis reveals that, despite the close similarity of the sequences, features such as the genome structure display striking differences. It remains unclear whether the virtually identical gene repertoires are the result of convergence or descent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vicente Pérez-Brocal
- Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
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Brown MT, Goldstone HMH, Bastida-Corcuera F, Delgadillo-Correa MG, McArthur AG, Johnson PJ. A functionally divergent hydrogenosomal peptidase with protomitochondrial ancestry. Mol Microbiol 2007; 64:1154-63. [PMID: 17542912 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2007.05719.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Matrix proteins of mitochondria, hydrogenosomes and mitosomes are typically targeted and translocated into their respective organelles using N-terminal presequences that are subsequently cleaved by a peptidase. Here we characterize a approximately 47 kDa metallopeptidase, from the hydrogenosome-bearing, unicellular eukaryote Trichomonas vaginalis, that contains the active site motif (HXXEHX(76)E) characteristic of the beta subunit of the mitochondrial processing peptidase (MPP) and localizes to hydrogenosomes. The purified recombinant protein, named hydrogenosomal processing peptidase (HPP), is capable of cleaving a hydrogenosomal presequence in vitro, in contrast to MPP which requires both an alpha and beta subunit for activity. T. vaginalis HPP forms an approximately 100 kDa homodimer in vitro and also exists in an approximately 100 kDa complex in vivo. Our phylogenetic analyses support a common origin for HPP and betaMPP and demonstrate that gene duplication gave rise to alphaMPP and betaMPP before the divergence of T. vaginalis and mitochondria-bearing lineages. These data, together with published analyses of MPPs and putative mitosomal processing peptidases, lead us to propose that the length of targeting presequences and the subunit composition of organellar processing peptidases evolved in concert. Specifically, longer mitochondrial presequences may have evolved to require an alpha/beta heterodimer for accurate cleavage, while shorter hydrogenosomal and mitosomal presequences did not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark T Brown
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, 609 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1489, USA
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Passardi F, Bakalovic N, Teixeira FK, Margis-Pinheiro M, Penel C, Dunand C. Prokaryotic origins of the non-animal peroxidase superfamily and organelle-mediated transmission to eukaryotes. Genomics 2007; 89:567-79. [PMID: 17355904 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2007.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2006] [Revised: 01/12/2007] [Accepted: 01/18/2007] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Members of the superfamily of plant, fungal, and bacterial peroxidases are known to be present in a wide variety of living organisms. Extensive searching within sequencing projects identified organisms containing sequences of this superfamily. Class I peroxidases, cytochrome c peroxidase (CcP), ascorbate peroxidase (APx), and catalase peroxidase (CP), are known to be present in bacteria, fungi, and plants, but have now been found in various protists. CcP sequences were detected in most mitochondria-possessing organisms except for green plants, which possess only ascorbate peroxidases. APx sequences had previously been observed only in green plants but were also found in chloroplastic protists, which acquired chloroplasts by secondary endosymbiosis. CP sequences that are known to be present in prokaryotes and in Ascomycetes were also detected in some Basidiomycetes and occasionally in some protists. Class II peroxidases are involved in lignin biodegradation and are found only in the Homobasidiomycetes. In fact class II peroxidases were identified in only three orders, although degenerate forms were found in different Pezizomycota orders. Class III peroxidases are specific for higher plants, and their evolution is thought to be related to the emergence of the land plants. We have found, however, that class III peroxidases are present in some green algae, which predate land colonization. The presence of peroxidases in all major phyla (except vertebrates) makes them powerful marker genes for understanding the early evolutionary events that led to the appearance of the ancestors of each eukaryotic group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filippo Passardi
- Laboratory of Plant Physiology, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
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Mukherjee M, Brown MT, McArthur AG, Johnson PJ. Proteins of the glycine decarboxylase complex in the hydrogenosome of Trichomonas vaginalis. EUKARYOTIC CELL 2007; 5:2062-71. [PMID: 17158739 PMCID: PMC1694811 DOI: 10.1128/ec.00205-06] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Trichomonas vaginalis is a unicellular eukaryote that lacks mitochondria and contains a specialized organelle, the hydrogenosome, involved in carbohydrate metabolism and iron-sulfur cluster assembly. We report the identification of two glycine cleavage H proteins and a dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (L protein) of the glycine decarboxylase complex in T. vaginalis with predicted N-terminal hydrogenosomal presequences. Immunofluorescence analyses reveal that both H and L proteins are localized in hydrogenosomes, providing the first evidence for amino acid metabolism in this organelle. All three proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. The experimental Km of L protein for the two H proteins were 2.6 microM and 3.7 microM, consistent with both H proteins serving as substrates of L protein. Analyses using purified hydrogenosomes showed that endogenous H proteins exist as monomers and endogenous L protein as a homodimer in their native states. Phylogenetic analyses of L proteins revealed that the T. vaginalis homologue shares a common ancestry with dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenases from the firmicute bacteria, indicating its acquisition via a horizontal gene transfer event independent of the origins of mitochondria and hydrogenosomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mandira Mukherjee
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, 609 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1489, USA
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Davidov Y, Huchon D, Koval SF, Jurkevitch E. A new alpha-proteobacterial clade of Bdellovibrio-like predators: implications for the mitochondrial endosymbiotic theory. Environ Microbiol 2007; 8:2179-88. [PMID: 17107559 DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01101.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALOs) are peculiar, ubiquitous, small-sized, highly motile Gram-negative bacteria that are obligatory predators of other bacteria. Typically, these predators invade the periplasm of their prey where they grow and replicate. To date, BALOs constitute two highly diverse families affiliated with the delta-proteobacteria class. In this study, Micavibrio spp., a BALO lineage of epibiotic predators, were isolated from soil. These bacteria attach to digest and grow at the expense of other prokaryotes, much like other BALOs. Multiple phylogenetic analyses based on six genes revealed that they formed a deep branch within the alpha-proteobacteria, not affiliated with any of the alpha-proteobacterial orders. The presence of BALOs deep among the alpha-proteobacteria suggests that their peculiar mode of parasitism maybe an ancestral character in this proteobacterial class. The origin of the mitochondrion from an alpha-proteobacterium endosymbiont is strongly supported by molecular phylogenies. Accumulating data suggest that the endosymbiont's host was also a prokaryote. As prokaryotes are unable to phagocytose, the means by which the endosymbiont gained access into its host remains mysterious. We here propose a scenario based on the BALO feeding-mode to hypothesize a mechanism at play at the origin of the mitochondrial endosymbiosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaacov Davidov
- Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
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Embley TM. Multiple secondary origins of the anaerobic lifestyle in eukaryotes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2006; 361:1055-67. [PMID: 16754614 PMCID: PMC1578728 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Classical ideas for early eukaryotic evolution often posited a period of anaerobic evolution producing a nucleated phagocytic cell to engulf the mitochondrial endosymbiont, whose presence allowed the host to colonize emerging aerobic environments. This idea was given credence by the existence of contemporary anaerobic eukaryotes that were thought to primitively lack mitochondria, thus providing examples of the type of host cell needed. However, the groups key to this hypothesis have now been shown to contain previously overlooked mitochondrial homologues called hydrogenosomes or mitosomes; organelles that share common ancestry with mitochondria but which do not carry out aerobic respiration. Mapping these data on the unfolding eukaryotic tree reveals that secondary adaptation to anaerobic habitats is a reoccurring theme among eukaryotes. The apparent ubiquity of mitochondrial homologues bears testament to the importance of the mitochondrial endosymbiosis, perhaps as a founding event, in eukaryotic evolution. Comparative study of different mitochondrial homologues is needed to determine their fundamental importance for contemporary eukaryotic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Martin Embley
- The Devonshire Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Division of Biology, NE1 7RU, UK.
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van der Giezen M, Tovar J. Degenerate mitochondria. EMBO Rep 2005; 6:525-30. [PMID: 15940286 PMCID: PMC1369098 DOI: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 115] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2004] [Accepted: 04/15/2005] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Mitochondria are the main sites of biological energy generation in eukaryotes. These organelles are remnants of a bacterial endosymbiont that took up residence inside a host cell over 1,500 million years ago. Comparative genomics studies suggest that the mitochondrion is monophyletic in origin. Thus, the original mitochondrial endosymbiont has evolved independently in anaerobic and aerobic environments that are inhabited by diverse eukaryotic lineages. This process has resulted in a collection of morphologically, genetically and functionally heterogeneous organelle variants that include anaerobic and aerobic mitochondria, hydrogenosomes and mitosomes. Current studies aim to determine whether a central common function drives the retention of mitochondrial organelles in different eukaryotic organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark van der Giezen
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - Jorge Tovar
- School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK
- Tel: + 44 1784 414159; Fax: +44 1784 434326;
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Regoes A, Zourmpanou D, León-Avila G, van der Giezen M, Tovar J, Hehl AB. Protein import, replication, and inheritance of a vestigial mitochondrion. J Biol Chem 2005; 280:30557-63. [PMID: 15985435 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m500787200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Mitochondrial remnant organelles (mitosomes) that exist in a range of "amitochondrial" eukaryotic organisms represent ideal models for the study of mitochondrial evolution and for the establishment of the minimal set of proteins required for the biogenesis of an endosymbiosis-derived organelle. Giardia intestinalis, often described as the earliest branching eukaryote, contains double membrane-bounded structures involved in iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis, an essential function of mitochondria. Here we present evidence that Giardia mitosomes also harbor Cpn60, mtHsp70, and ferredoxin and that despite their advanced state of reductive evolution they have retained vestiges of presequence-dependent and -independent protein import pathways akin to those that operate in mammalian mitochondria. Although import of IscU and ferredoxin is still reliant on their amino-terminal presequences, targeting of Giardia Cpn60, IscS, or mtHsp70 into mitosomes no longer requires cleavable presequences, a derived feature from their mitochondrial homologues. In addition, we found that division and segregation of a single centrally positioned mitosome tightly associated with the microtubular cytoskeleton is coordinated with the cell cycle, whereas peripherally located mitosomes are inherited into daughter cells stochastically.
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Affiliation(s)
- Attila Regoes
- Institute of Parasitology, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 266a, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
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