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Morel B, Williams TA, Stamatakis A, Szöllősi GJ. AleRax: a tool for gene and species tree co-estimation and reconciliation under a probabilistic model of gene duplication, transfer, and loss. Bioinformatics 2024; 40:btae162. [PMID: 38514421 PMCID: PMC10990685 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Revised: 01/30/2024] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Genomes are a rich source of information on the pattern and process of evolution across biological scales. How best to make use of that information is an active area of research in phylogenetics. Ideally, phylogenetic methods should not only model substitutions along gene trees, which explain differences between homologous gene sequences, but also the processes that generate the gene trees themselves along a shared species tree. To conduct accurate inferences, one needs to account for uncertainty at both levels, that is, in gene trees estimated from inherently short sequences and in their diverse evolutionary histories along a shared species tree. RESULTS We present AleRax, a software that can infer reconciled gene trees together with a shared species tree using a simple, yet powerful, probabilistic model of gene duplication, transfer, and loss. A key feature of AleRax is its ability to account for uncertainty in the gene tree and its reconciliation by using an efficient approximation to calculate the joint phylogenetic-reconciliation likelihood and sample reconciled gene trees accordingly. Simulations and analyses of empirical data show that AleRax is one order of magnitude faster than competing gene tree inference tools while attaining the same accuracy. It is consistently more robust than species tree inference methods such as SpeciesRax and ASTRAL-Pro 2 under gene tree uncertainty. Finally, AleRax can process multiple gene families in parallel thereby allowing users to compare competing phylogenetic hypotheses and estimate model parameters, such as duplication, transfer, and loss probabilities for genome-scale datasets with hundreds of taxa. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION GNU GPL at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/AleRax and data are made available at https://cme.h-its.org/exelixis/material/alerax_data.tar.gz.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benoit Morel
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg 69118, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg 69118, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany
- Institute of Computer Science, Biodiversity Computing Group, Heraklion GR-70013, Greece
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- ELTE-MTA “Lendület”, Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest H-1121, Hungary
- Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
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Bowles AMC, Williamson CJ, Williams TA, Donoghue PCJ. Cryogenian Origins of Multicellularity in Archaeplastida. Genome Biol Evol 2024; 16:evae026. [PMID: 38333966 PMCID: PMC10883732 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evae026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Revised: 01/30/2024] [Accepted: 02/03/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Earth was impacted by global glaciations during the Cryogenian (720 to 635 million years ago; Ma), events invoked to explain both the origins of multicellularity in Archaeplastida and radiation of the first land plants. However, the temporal relationship between these environmental and biological events is poorly established, due to a paucity of molecular and fossil data, precluding resolution of the phylogeny and timescale of archaeplastid evolution. We infer a time-calibrated phylogeny of early archaeplastid evolution based on a revised molecular dataset and reappraisal of the fossil record. Phylogenetic topology testing resolves deep archaeplastid relationships, identifying two clades of Viridiplantae and placing Bryopsidales as sister to the Chlorophyceae. Our molecular clock analysis infers an origin of Archaeplastida in the late-Paleoproterozoic to early-Mesoproterozoic (1712 to 1387 Ma). Ancestral state reconstruction of cytomorphological traits on this time-calibrated tree reveals many of the independent origins of multicellularity span the Cryogenian, consistent with the Cryogenian multicellularity hypothesis. Multicellular rhodophytes emerged 902 to 655 Ma while crown-Anydrophyta (Zygnematophyceae and Embryophyta) originated 796 to 671 Ma, broadly compatible with the Cryogenian plant terrestrialization hypothesis. Our analyses resolve the timetree of Archaeplastida with age estimates for ancestral multicellular archaeplastids coinciding with the Cryogenian, compatible with hypotheses that propose a role of Snowball Earth in plant evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M C Bowles
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | | | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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Mahendrarajah TA, Moody ERR, Schrempf D, Szánthó LL, Dombrowski N, Davín AA, Pisani D, Donoghue PCJ, Szöllősi GJ, Williams TA, Spang A. ATP synthase evolution on a cross-braced dated tree of life. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7456. [PMID: 37978174 PMCID: PMC10656485 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42924-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The timing of early cellular evolution, from the divergence of Archaea and Bacteria to the origin of eukaryotes, is poorly constrained. The ATP synthase complex is thought to have originated prior to the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) and analyses of ATP synthase genes, together with ribosomes, have played a key role in inferring and rooting the tree of life. We reconstruct the evolutionary history of ATP synthases using an expanded taxon sampling set and develop a phylogenetic cross-bracing approach, constraining equivalent speciation nodes to be contemporaneous, based on the phylogenetic imprint of endosymbioses and ancient gene duplications. This approach results in a highly resolved, dated species tree and establishes an absolute timeline for ATP synthase evolution. Our analyses show that the divergence of ATP synthase into F- and A/V-type lineages was a very early event in cellular evolution dating back to more than 4 Ga, potentially predating the diversification of Archaea and Bacteria. Our cross-braced, dated tree of life also provides insight into more recent evolutionary transitions including eukaryogenesis, showing that the eukaryotic nuclear and mitochondrial lineages diverged from their closest archaeal (2.67-2.19 Ga) and bacterial (2.58-2.12 Ga) relatives at approximately the same time, with a slightly longer nuclear stem-lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, AB Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Edmund R R Moody
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Department Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendulet" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- Department Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendulet" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Karolina ut 29, H-1113, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Nina Dombrowski
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, AB Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Adrián A Davín
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Davide Pisani
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendulet" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117, Budapest, Hungary
- Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan
| | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK.
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, AB Den Burg, The Netherlands.
- Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Zheng J, Mallon J, Lammers A, Rados T, Litschel T, Moody ERR, Ramirez-Diaz DA, Schmid A, Williams TA, Bisson-Filho AW, Garner E. Salactin, a dynamically unstable actin homolog in Haloarchaea. mBio 2023; 14:e0227223. [PMID: 37966230 PMCID: PMC10746226 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02272-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Protein filaments play important roles in many biological processes. We discovered an actin homolog in halophilic archaea, which we call Salactin. Just like the filaments that segregate DNA in eukaryotes, Salactin grows out of the cell poles towards the middle, and then quickly depolymerizes, a behavior known as dynamic instability. Furthermore, we see that Salactin affects the distribution of DNA in daughter cells when cells are grown in low-phosphate media, suggesting Salactin filaments might be involved in segregating DNA when the cell has only a few copies of the chromosome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Zheng
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - John Mallon
- Department of Biology, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Science Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Alex Lammers
- Physiology Course, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Theopi Rados
- Department of Biology, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Science Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Thomas Litschel
- Physiology Course, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
- John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Edmund R. R. Moody
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Diego A. Ramirez-Diaz
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Schmid
- Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Center for Genomics and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Tom A. Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Alexandre W. Bisson-Filho
- Department of Biology, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Science Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ethan Garner
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Sheridan PO, Meng Y, Williams TA, Gubry-Rangin C. Genomics of soil depth niche partitioning in the Thaumarchaeota family Gagatemarchaeaceae. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7305. [PMID: 37951938 PMCID: PMC10640624 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43196-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Knowledge of deeply-rooted non-ammonia oxidising Thaumarchaeota lineages from terrestrial environments is scarce, despite their abundance in acidic soils. Here, 15 new deeply-rooted thaumarchaeotal genomes were assembled from acidic topsoils (0-15 cm) and subsoils (30-60 cm), corresponding to two genera of terrestrially prevalent Gagatemarchaeaceae (previously known as thaumarchaeotal Group I.1c) and to a novel genus of heterotrophic terrestrial Thaumarchaeota. Unlike previous predictions, metabolic annotations suggest Gagatemarchaeaceae perform aerobic respiration and use various organic carbon sources. Evolutionary divergence between topsoil and subsoil lineages happened early in Gagatemarchaeaceae history, with significant metabolic and genomic trait differences. Reconstruction of the evolutionary mechanisms showed that the genome expansion in topsoil Gagatemarchaeaceae resulted from extensive early lateral gene acquisition, followed by progressive gene duplication throughout evolutionary history. Ancestral trait reconstruction using the expanded genomic diversity also did not support the previous hypothesis of a thermophilic last common ancestor of the ammonia-oxidising archaea. Ultimately, this study provides a good model for studying mechanisms driving niche partitioning between spatially related ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul O Sheridan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Yiyu Meng
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Donoghue PCJ, Kay C, Spang A, Szöllősi G, Nenarokova A, Moody ERR, Pisani D, Williams TA. Defining eukaryotes to dissect eukaryogenesis. Curr Biol 2023; 33:R919-R929. [PMID: 37699353 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.07.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/14/2023]
Abstract
The origin of eukaryotes is among the most contentious debates in evolutionary biology, attracting multiple seemingly incompatible theories seeking to explain the sequence in which eukaryotic characteristics were acquired. Much of the controversy arises from differing views on the defining characteristics of eukaryotes. We argue that eukaryotes should be defined phylogenetically, and that doing so clarifies where competing hypotheses of eukaryogenesis agree and how we may test among aspects of disagreement. Some hypotheses make predictions about the phylogenetic origins of eukaryotic genes and are distinguishable on that basis. However, other hypotheses differ only in the order of key evolutionary steps, like mitochondrial endosymbiosis and nuclear assembly, which cannot currently be distinguished phylogenetically. Stages within eukaryogenesis may be made identifiable through the absolute dating of gene duplicates that map to eukaryotic traits, such as in genes of host or mitochondrial origin that duplicated and diverged functionally prior to emergence of the last eukaryotic common ancestor. In this way, it may finally be possible to distinguish heat from light in the debate over eukaryogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - Chris Kay
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Utrecht University, Den Burg 1790 AB, The Netherlands
| | - Gergely Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Lorand University, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; MTA-ELTE "Lendü let" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, H-1113 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anna Nenarokova
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Edmund R R Moody
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Davide Pisani
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK; Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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Nicholls JWF, Chin JP, Williams TA, Lenton TM, O’Flaherty V, McGrath JW. On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1239189. [PMID: 37601379 PMCID: PMC10433651 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1239189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Energy metabolism in extant life is centered around phosphate and the energy-dense phosphoanhydride bonds of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a deeply conserved and ancient bioenergetic system. Yet, ATP synthesis relies on numerous complex enzymes and has an autocatalytic requirement for ATP itself. This implies the existence of evolutionarily simpler bioenergetic pathways and potentially primordial alternatives to ATP. The centrality of phosphate in modern bioenergetics, coupled with the energetic properties of phosphorylated compounds, may suggest that primordial precursors to ATP also utilized phosphate in compounds such as pyrophosphate, acetyl phosphate and polyphosphate. However, bioavailable phosphate may have been notably scarce on the early Earth, raising doubts about the roles that phosphorylated molecules might have played in the early evolution of life. A largely overlooked phosphorus redox cycle on the ancient Earth might have provided phosphorus and energy, with reduced phosphorus compounds potentially playing a key role in the early evolution of energy metabolism. Here, we speculate on the biological phosphorus compounds that may have acted as primordial energy currencies, sources of environmental energy, or sources of phosphorus for the synthesis of phosphorylated energy currencies. This review encompasses discussions on the evolutionary history of modern bioenergetics, and specifically those pathways with primordial relevance, and the geochemistry of bioavailable phosphorus on the ancient Earth. We highlight the importance of phosphorus, not only in the form of phosphate, to early biology and suggest future directions of study that may improve our understanding of the early evolution of bioenergetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jack W. F. Nicholls
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
| | - Jason P. Chin
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
| | - Tom A. Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Timothy M. Lenton
- Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | | | - John W. McGrath
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
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Williams TA, Davin AA, Morel B, Szánthó LL, Spang A, Stamatakis A, Hugenholtz P, Szöllősi GJ. Parameter estimation and species tree rooting using ALE and GeneRax. Genome Biol Evol 2023:evad134. [PMID: 37463417 PMCID: PMC10373948 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evad134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
ALE and GeneRax are tools for probabilistic gene tree-species tree reconciliation. Based on a common underlying statistical model of how gene trees evolve along species trees, these methods rely on gene versus species tree discordance to infer gene duplication, transfer and loss events, map gene family origins and root species trees. Published analyses have used these methods to root species trees of Archaea, Bacteria and several eukaryotic groups, as well as to infer ancestral gene repertoires. However, it was recently suggested that reconciliation-based estimates of duplication and transfer events using the ALE/GeneRax model were unreliable, with potential implications for species tree rooting. Here, we assess these criticisms and find that the methods are accurate when applied to simulated data and in generally good agreement with alternative methodological approaches on empirical data. In particular, ALE recovers variation in gene duplication and transfer frequencies across lineages that is consistent with the known biology of studied clades. In plants and opisthokonts, ALE recovers the consensus species tree root; in Bacteria - where there is less certainty about the root position - ALE agrees with alternative approaches on the most likely root region. Overall, ALE and related approaches are promising tools for studying genome evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS81TQ, UK
| | - Adrian A Davin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
| | - Benoit Morel
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, 69118, Heidelberg, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anja Spang
- NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry; AB Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Biodiversity Computing Group, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 70013, Heraklion, Greece
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, 69118, Heidelberg, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
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Healy MD, McNally KE, Butkovič R, Chilton M, Kato K, Sacharz J, McConville C, Moody ERR, Shaw S, Planelles-Herrero VJ, Yadav SKN, Ross J, Borucu U, Palmer CS, Chen KE, Croll TI, Hall RJ, Caruana NJ, Ghai R, Nguyen THD, Heesom KJ, Saitoh S, Berger I, Schaffitzel C, Williams TA, Stroud DA, Derivery E, Collins BM, Cullen PJ. Structure of the endosomal Commander complex linked to Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome. Cell 2023; 186:2219-2237.e29. [PMID: 37172566 PMCID: PMC10187114 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2023] [Revised: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
The Commander complex is required for endosomal recycling of diverse transmembrane cargos and is mutated in Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome. It comprises two sub-assemblies: Retriever composed of VPS35L, VPS26C, and VPS29; and the CCC complex which contains twelve subunits: COMMD1-COMMD10 and the coiled-coil domain-containing (CCDC) proteins CCDC22 and CCDC93. Combining X-ray crystallography, electron cryomicroscopy, and in silico predictions, we have assembled a complete structural model of Commander. Retriever is distantly related to the endosomal Retromer complex but has unique features preventing the shared VPS29 subunit from interacting with Retromer-associated factors. The COMMD proteins form a distinctive hetero-decameric ring stabilized by extensive interactions with CCDC22 and CCDC93. These adopt a coiled-coil structure that connects the CCC and Retriever assemblies and recruits a 16th subunit, DENND10, to form the complete Commander complex. The structure allows mapping of disease-causing mutations and reveals the molecular features required for the function of this evolutionarily conserved trafficking machinery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael D Healy
- Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Kerrie E McNally
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK; MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK.
| | - Rebeka Butkovič
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Molly Chilton
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Kohji Kato
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Joanna Sacharz
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Calum McConville
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Edmund R R Moody
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Shrestha Shaw
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | | | - Sathish K N Yadav
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Jennifer Ross
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Ufuk Borucu
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Catherine S Palmer
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Kai-En Chen
- Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Tristan I Croll
- Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, CB2 0XY Cambridge, UK
| | - Ryan J Hall
- Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Nikeisha J Caruana
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia; Institute of Health and Sport (iHeS), Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC Australia
| | - Rajesh Ghai
- Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Thi H D Nguyen
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Kate J Heesom
- Proteomics Facility, School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Shinji Saitoh
- Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and Medical School, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Imre Berger
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK; Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Bristol, BS8 1TS Bristol, UK
| | - Christiane Schaffitzel
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK
| | - David A Stroud
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, VIC Australia
| | | | - Brett M Collins
- Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
| | - Peter J Cullen
- School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, UK.
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10
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Valach M, Moreira S, Petitjean C, Benz C, Butenko A, Flegontova O, Nenarokova A, Prokopchuk G, Batstone T, Lapébie P, Lemogo L, Sarrasin M, Stretenowich P, Tripathi P, Yazaki E, Nara T, Henrissat B, Lang BF, Gray MW, Williams TA, Lukeš J, Burger G. Recent expansion of metabolic versatility in Diplonema papillatum, the model species of a highly speciose group of marine eukaryotes. BMC Biol 2023; 21:99. [PMID: 37143068 PMCID: PMC10161547 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01563-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Diplonemid flagellates are among the most abundant and species-rich of known marine microeukaryotes, colonizing all habitats, depths, and geographic regions of the world ocean. However, little is known about their genomes, biology, and ecological role. RESULTS We present the first nuclear genome sequence from a diplonemid, the type species Diplonema papillatum. The ~ 280-Mb genome assembly contains about 32,000 protein-coding genes, likely co-transcribed in groups of up to 100. Gene clusters are separated by long repetitive regions that include numerous transposable elements, which also reside within introns. Analysis of gene-family evolution reveals that the last common diplonemid ancestor underwent considerable metabolic expansion. D. papillatum-specific gains of carbohydrate-degradation capability were apparently acquired via horizontal gene transfer. The predicted breakdown of polysaccharides including pectin and xylan is at odds with reports of peptides being the predominant carbon source of this organism. Secretome analysis together with feeding experiments suggest that D. papillatum is predatory, able to degrade cell walls of live microeukaryotes, macroalgae, and water plants, not only for protoplast feeding but also for metabolizing cell-wall carbohydrates as an energy source. The analysis of environmental barcode samples shows that D. papillatum is confined to temperate coastal waters, presumably acting in bioremediation of eutrophication. CONCLUSIONS Nuclear genome information will allow systematic functional and cell-biology studies in D. papillatum. It will also serve as a reference for the highly diverse diplonemids and provide a point of comparison for studying gene complement evolution in the sister group of Kinetoplastida, including human-pathogenic taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matus Valach
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
| | - Sandrine Moreira
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Celine Petitjean
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Corinna Benz
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Anzhelika Butenko
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Olga Flegontova
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Anna Nenarokova
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Galina Prokopchuk
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Tom Batstone
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Present address: High Performance Computing Centre, Bristol, UK
| | - Pascal Lapébie
- Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques (AFMB), CNRS, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Lionnel Lemogo
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Present address: Environment Climate Change Canada, Dorval, QC, Canada
| | - Matt Sarrasin
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Paul Stretenowich
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Present address: Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics; McGill Genome Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Pragya Tripathi
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Euki Yazaki
- RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS), Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, Japan
| | - Takeshi Nara
- Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, Graduate School of Life Science and Technology, Iryo Sosei University, Iwaki City, Fukushima, Japan
| | - Bernard Henrissat
- Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques (AFMB), CNRS, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Present address: DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Biological Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - B Franz Lang
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Michael W Gray
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute for Comparative Genomics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Julius Lukeš
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Gertraud Burger
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert-Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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11
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Williams SE, Back CR, Best E, Mantell J, Stach JEM, Williams TA, Race PR, Curnow P. Discovery and biosynthetic assessment of ' Streptomyces ortus' sp. nov. isolated from a deep-sea sponge. Microb Genom 2023; 9. [PMID: 37166955 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The deep sea is known to host novel bacteria with the potential to produce a diverse array of undiscovered natural products. Thus, understanding these bacteria is of broad interest in ecology and could also underpin applied drug discovery, specifically in the area of antimicrobials. Here, we isolate a new strain of Streptomyces from the tissue of the deep-sea sponge Polymastia corticata collected at a depth of 1869 m from the Gramberg Seamount in the Atlantic Ocean. This strain, which was given the initial designation A15ISP2-DRY2T, has a genome size of 9.29 Mb with a G+C content of 70.83 mol%. Phylogenomics determined that A15ISP2-DRY2T represents a novel species within the genus Streptomyces as part of the Streptomyces aurantiacus clade. The biosynthetic potential of A15ISP2-DRY2T was assessed relative to other members of the S. aurantiacus clade via comparative gene cluster family (GCF) analysis. This revealed a clear congruent relationship between phylogeny and GCF content. A15ISP2-DRY2T contains six unique GCFs absent elsewhere in the clade. Culture-based assays were used to demonstrate the antibacterial activity of A15ISP2-DRY2T against two drug-resistant human pathogens. Thus, we determine A15ISP2-DRY2T to be a novel bacterial species with considerable biosynthetic potential and propose the systematic name 'Streptomyces ortus' sp. nov.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sam E Williams
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Catherine R Back
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Eleanor Best
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Judith Mantell
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
- Woolfson Bioimaging Facility, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - James E M Stach
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, King's Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Paul R Race
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Paul Curnow
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
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12
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Lin H, Moody ERR, Williams TA, Moreau JW. On the origin and evolution of microbial mercury methylation. Genome Biol Evol 2023; 15:7084592. [PMID: 36951100 PMCID: PMC10083202 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evad051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 03/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The origin of microbial mercury methylation has long been a mystery. Here we employed genome-resolved phylogenetic analyses to decipher the evolution of the mercury methylating gene, hgcAB, constrain the ancestral origin of the hgc operon, and explain the distribution of hgc in Bacteria and Archaea. We infer the extent to which vertical inheritance and horizontal gene transfer have influenced the evolution of mercury methylators and hypothesize that evolution of this trait bestowed the ability to produce an antimicrobial compound (MeHg+) on a potentially resource-limited early Earth. We speculate that, in response, the evolution of MeHg + -detoxifying alkylmercury lyase (encoded by merB) reduced a selective advantage for mercury methylators and resulted in widespread loss of hgc in Bacteria and Archaea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heyu Lin
- School of Geographical, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Edmund R R Moody
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
| | - John W Moreau
- School of Geographical, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
- School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8RZ, United Kingdom
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13
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Bowles AMC, Williamson CJ, Williams TA, Lenton TM, Donoghue PCJ. The origin and early evolution of plants. Trends Plant Sci 2023; 28:312-329. [PMID: 36328872 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2022.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Plant (archaeplastid) evolution has transformed the biosphere, but we are only now beginning to learn how this took place through comparative genomics, phylogenetics, and the fossil record. This has illuminated the phylogeny of Archaeplastida, Viridiplantae, and Streptophyta, and has resolved the evolution of key characters, genes, and genomes - revealing that many key innovations evolved long before the clades with which they have been casually associated. Molecular clock analyses estimate that Streptophyta and Viridiplantae emerged in the late Mesoproterozoic to late Neoproterozoic, whereas Archaeplastida emerged in the late-mid Palaeoproterozoic. Together, these insights inform on the coevolution of plants and the Earth system that transformed ecology and global biogeochemical cycles, increased weathering, and precipitated snowball Earth events, during which they would have been key to oxygen production and net primary productivity (NPP).
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M C Bowles
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK; Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | | | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Timothy M Lenton
- Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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14
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Morel B, Williams TA, Stamatakis A. Asteroid: a new algorithm to infer species trees from gene trees under high proportions of missing data. Bioinformatics 2022; 39:6964379. [PMID: 36576010 PMCID: PMC9838317 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac832] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Missing data and incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) are two major obstacles to accurate species tree inference. Gene tree summary methods such as ASTRAL and ASTRID have been developed to account for ILS. However, they can be severely affected by high levels of missing data. RESULTS We present Asteroid, a novel algorithm that infers an unrooted species tree from a set of unrooted gene trees. We show on both empirical and simulated datasets that Asteroid is substantially more accurate than ASTRAL and ASTRID for very high proportions (>80%) of missing data. Asteroid is several orders of magnitude faster than ASTRAL for datasets that contain thousands of genes. It offers advanced features such as parallelization, support value computation and support for multi-copy and multifurcating gene trees. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Asteroid is freely available at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/Asteroid. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8, UK
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg 69118, Germany,Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany
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15
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Harris BJ, Clark JW, Schrempf D, Szöllősi GJ, Donoghue PCJ, Hetherington AM, Williams TA. Divergent evolutionary trajectories of bryophytes and tracheophytes from a complex common ancestor of land plants. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1634-1643. [PMID: 36175544 PMCID: PMC9630106 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01885-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The origin of plants and their colonization of land fundamentally transformed the terrestrial environment. Here we elucidate the basis of this formative episode in Earth history through patterns of lineage, gene and genome evolution. We use new fossil calibrations, a relative clade age calibration (informed by horizontal gene transfer) and new phylogenomic methods for mapping gene family origins. Distinct rooting strategies resolve tracheophytes (vascular plants) and bryophytes (non-vascular plants) as monophyletic sister groups that diverged during the Cambrian, 515-494 million years ago. The embryophyte stem is characterized by a burst of gene innovation, while bryophytes subsequently experienced an equally dramatic episode of reductive genome evolution in which they lost genes associated with the elaboration of vasculature and the stomatal complex. Overall, our analyses reveal that extant tracheophytes and bryophytes are both highly derived from a more complex ancestral land plant. Understanding the origin of land plants requires tracing character evolution across a diversity of modern lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brogan J Harris
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - James W Clark
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | | | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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16
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Foster PG, Schrempf D, Szöllősi GJ, Williams TA, Cox CJ, Embley TM. Recoding amino acids to a reduced alphabet may increase or decrease phylogenetic accuracy. Syst Biol 2022:6609786. [PMID: 35713492 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syac042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2021] [Revised: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Common molecular phylogenetic characteristics such as long branches and compositional heterogeneity can be problematic for phylogenetic reconstruction when using amino acid data. Recoding alignments to reduced alphabets before phylogenetic analysis has often been used both to explore and potentially decrease the effect of such problems. We tested the effectiveness of this strategy on topological accuracy using simulated data on four-taxon trees. We simulated alignments in phylogenetically challenging ways to test the phylogenetic accuracy of analyses using various recoding strategies together with commonly-used homogeneous models. We tested three recoding methods based on amino acid exchangeability, and another recoding method based on lowering the compositional heterogeneity among alignment sequences as measured by the Chi-squared statistic. Our simulation results show that on trees with long branches where sequences approach saturation, accuracy was not greatly affected by exchangeability-based recodings, but Chi-squared-based recoding decreased accuracy. We then simulated sequences with different kinds of compositional heterogeneity over the tree. Recoding often increased accuracy on such alignments. Exchangeability-based recoding was rarely worse than not recoding, and often considerably better. Recoding based on lowering the Chi-squared value improved accuracy in some cases but not in others, suggesting that low compositional heterogeneity by itself is not sufficient to increase accuracy in the analysis of these alignments. We also simulated alignments using site-specific amino acid profiles, making sequences that had compositional heterogeneity over alignment sites. Exchangeability-based recoding coupled with site-homogeneous models had poor accuracy for these datasets but Chi-squared-based recoding on these alignments increased accuracy. We then simulated datasets that were compositionally both site- and tree-heterogeneous, like many real datasets. The effect on accuracy of recoding such doubly problematic datasets varied widely, depending on the type of compositional tree-heterogeneity and on the recoding scheme. Interestingly, analysis of unrecoded compositionally heterogeneous alignments with the NDCH or CAT models was generally more accurate than homogeneous analysis, whether recoded or not. Overall, our results suggest that making trees for recoded amino acid datasets can be useful, but they need to be interpreted cautiously as part of a more comprehensive analysis. The use of better fitting models like NDCH and CAT, which directly account for the patterns in the data, may offer a more promising long-term solution for analysing empirical data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter G Foster
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 8237 Tihany, Hungary
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK
| | - Cymon J Cox
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, Gambelas, 8005-319 Faro, Portugal
| | - T Martin Embley
- Biosciences Institute, Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Baddiley-Clark Building (room 2.04), Newcastle University, Richardson Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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17
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Clark JW, Harris BJ, Hetherington AJ, Hurtado-Castano N, Brench RA, Casson S, Williams TA, Gray JE, Hetherington AM. The origin and evolution of stomata. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R539-R553. [PMID: 35671732 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
The acquisition of stomata is one of the key innovations that led to the colonisation of the terrestrial environment by the earliest land plants. However, our understanding of the origin, evolution and the ancestral function of stomata is incomplete. Phylogenomic analyses indicate that, firstly, stomata are ancient structures, present in the common ancestor of land plants, prior to the divergence of bryophytes and tracheophytes and, secondly, there has been reductive stomatal evolution, especially in the bryophytes (with complete loss in the liverworts). From a review of the evidence, we conclude that the capacity of stomata to open and close in response to signals such as ABA, CO2 and light (hydroactive movement) is an ancestral state, is present in all lineages and likely predates the divergence of the bryophytes and tracheophytes. We reject the hypothesis that hydroactive movement was acquired with the emergence of the gymnosperms. We also conclude that the role of stomata in the earliest land plants was to optimise carbon gain per unit water loss. There remain many other unanswered questions concerning the evolution and especially the origin of stomata. To address these questions, it will be necessary to: find more fossils representing the earliest land plants, revisit the existing early land plant fossil record in the light of novel phylogenomic hypotheses and carry out more functional studies that include both tracheophytes and bryophytes.
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Affiliation(s)
- James W Clark
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - Brogan J Harris
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Alexander J Hetherington
- Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Max Born Crescent, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK
| | - Natalia Hurtado-Castano
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soils, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Robert A Brench
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soils, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Stuart Casson
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soils, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Julie E Gray
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soils, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Alistair M Hetherington
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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18
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Simonetti B, Guo Q, Giménez-Andrés M, Chen KE, Moody ERR, Evans AJ, Chandra M, Danson CM, Williams TA, Collins BM, Cullen PJ. SNX27-Retromer directly binds ESCPE-1 to transfer cargo proteins during endosomal recycling. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001601. [PMID: 35417450 PMCID: PMC9038204 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Coat complexes coordinate cargo recognition through cargo adaptors with biogenesis of transport carriers during integral membrane protein trafficking. Here, we combine biochemical, structural, and cellular analyses to establish the mechanistic basis through which SNX27-Retromer, a major endosomal cargo adaptor, couples to the membrane remodeling endosomal SNX-BAR sorting complex for promoting exit 1 (ESCPE-1). In showing that the SNX27 FERM (4.1/ezrin/radixin/moesin) domain directly binds acidic-Asp-Leu-Phe (aDLF) motifs in the SNX1/SNX2 subunits of ESCPE-1, we propose a handover model where SNX27-Retromer captured cargo proteins are transferred into ESCPE-1 transport carriers to promote endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling. By revealing that assembly of the SNX27:Retromer:ESCPE-1 coat evolved in a stepwise manner during early metazoan evolution, likely reflecting the increasing complexity of endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling from the ancestral opisthokont to modern animals, we provide further evidence of the functional diversification of yeast pentameric Retromer in the recycling of hundreds of integral membrane proteins in metazoans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boris Simonetti
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Qian Guo
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Manuel Giménez-Andrés
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Kai-En Chen
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Edmund R. R. Moody
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Ashley J. Evans
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Mintu Chandra
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Chris M. Danson
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Tom A. Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Brett M. Collins
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter J. Cullen
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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19
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Moody ERR, Mahendrarajah TA, Dombrowski N, Clark JW, Petitjean C, Offre P, Szöllősi GJ, Spang A, Williams TA. An estimate of the deepest branches of the tree of life from ancient vertically-evolving genes. eLife 2022; 11:66695. [PMID: 35190025 PMCID: PMC8890751 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Core gene phylogenies provide a window into early evolution, but different gene sets and analytical methods have yielded substantially different views of the tree of life. Trees inferred from a small set of universal core genes have typically supported a long branch separating the archaeal and bacterial domains. By contrast, recent analyses of a broader set of non-ribosomal genes have suggested that Archaea may be less divergent from Bacteria, and that estimates of inter-domain distance are inflated due to accelerated evolution of ribosomal proteins along the inter-domain branch. Resolving this debate is key to determining the diversity of the archaeal and bacterial domains, the shape of the tree of life, and our understanding of the early course of cellular evolution. Here, we investigate the evolutionary history of the marker genes key to the debate. We show that estimates of a reduced Archaea-Bacteria (AB) branch length result from inter-domain gene transfers and hidden paralogy in the expanded marker gene set. By contrast, analysis of a broad range of manually curated marker gene datasets from an evenly sampled set of 700 Archaea and Bacteria reveals that current methods likely underestimate the AB branch length due to substitutional saturation and poor model fit; that the best-performing phylogenetic markers tend to support longer inter-domain branch lengths; and that the AB branch lengths of ribosomal and non-ribosomal marker genes are statistically indistinguishable. Furthermore, our phylogeny inferred from the 27 highest-ranked marker genes recovers a clade of DPANN at the base of the Archaea and places the bacterial Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) within Bacteria as the sister group to the Chloroflexota.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edmund R R Moody
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Nina Dombrowski
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - James W Clark
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Celine Petitjean
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Pierre Offre
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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20
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Abstract
Genetic exchange among disease-causing micro-organisms can generate progeny that combine different pathogenic traits. Though sexual reproduction has been described in trypanosomes, its impact on the epidemiology of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) remains controversial. However, human infective and non-human infective strains of Trypanosoma brucei circulate in the same transmission cycles in HAT endemic areas in subsaharan Africa, providing the opportunity for mating during the developmental cycle in the tsetse fly vector. Here we investigated inheritance among progeny from a laboratory cross of T. brucei and then applied these insights to genomic analysis of field-collected isolates to identify signatures of past genetic exchange. Genomes of two parental and four hybrid progeny clones with a range of DNA contents were assembled and analysed by k-mer and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) frequencies to determine heterozygosity and chromosomal inheritance. Variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) genes and kinetoplast (mitochondrial) DNA maxi- and minicircles were extracted from each genome to examine how each of these components was inherited in the hybrid progeny. The same bioinformatic approaches were applied to an additional 37 genomes representing the diversity of T. brucei in subsaharan Africa and T. evansi. SNP analysis provided evidence of crossover events affecting all 11 pairs of megabase chromosomes and demonstrated that polyploid hybrids were formed post-meiotically and not by fusion of the parental diploid cells. VSGs and kinetoplast DNA minicircles were inherited biparentally, with approximately equal numbers from each parent, whereas maxicircles were inherited uniparentally. Extrapolation of these findings to field isolates allowed us to distinguish clonal descent from hybridization by comparing maxicircle genotype to VSG and minicircle repertoires. Discordance between maxicircle genotype and VSG and minicircle repertoires indicated inter-lineage hybridization. Significantly, some of the hybridization events we identified involved human infective and non-human infective trypanosomes circulating in the same geographic areas. Sexual reproduction allows genes from different individuals to be mixed up in the offspring. This is particularly important for disease-causing microbes, because new combinations of harmful traits can arise, potentially leading to more severe outbreaks of disease. Tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes are single-celled parasites that cause severe human and livestock diseases in tropical Africa. During their developmental cycle in the tsetse fly, trypanosomes can mate and produce hybrid trypanosomes, which have one set of chromosomes from each parent. But polyploid hybrids, with more than one set of chromosomes from one or both parents, are often observed too. Here we have investigated how these polyploid hybrids are formed by comparing the genomes of hybrid progeny with those of their parents. Analysis of the large, paired chromosomes of both diploid and polyploid hybrids showed frequent crossovers, which are the hallmark of meiosis, the special form of division that produces haploid gametes. This indicates that the polyploids were formed after meiosis rather than by fusion of the parental diploid cells. We also investigated the inheritance of two other features of trypanosomes: the large family of variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) genes, and the mitochondrial (kinetoplast) DNA. Hybrid clones had inherited about half the VSG genes from each parent, and also showed biparental inheritance of one component of the kinetoplast DNA, the minicircles. We assessed the relatedness of field-collected trypanosomes by comparing their VSG and minicircle repertoires, together with maxicircle genotype. While most isolates shared few VSGs or minicircles, a group of mostly human-infective strains from Uganda had a large proportion of their repertoires in common. Most of these trypanosomes were probably related by clonal descent, but we also identified that some were hybrids by the mismatch between their maxicircle genotype and their VSG and minicircle repertoires. These signals of hybridization were also detected in some of the other field-collected isolates, suggesting that genetic exchange is widespread in nature. Significantly, the hybridization events involved human infective and non-human infective trypanosomes circulating in the same geographic areas, providing a mechanism for the generation of new, potentially more pathogenic, trypanosome strains causing human disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Kay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Lori Peacock
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Tom A. Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Wendy Gibson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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21
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Morel B, Schade P, Lutteropp S, Williams TA, Szöllősi GJ, Stamatakis A. SpeciesRax: A tool for maximum likelihood species tree inference from gene family trees under duplication, transfer, and loss. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6503503. [PMID: 35021210 PMCID: PMC8826479 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Species tree inference from gene family trees is becoming increasingly popular because it can account for discordance between the species tree and the corresponding gene family trees. In particular, methods that can account for multiple-copy gene families exhibit potential to leverage paralogy as informative signal. At present, there does not exist any widely adopted inference method for this purpose. Here, we present SpeciesRax, the first maximum likelihood method that can infer a rooted species tree from a set of gene family trees and can account for gene duplication, loss, and transfer events. By explicitly modeling events by which gene trees can depart from the species tree, SpeciesRax leverages the phylogenetic rooting signal in gene trees. SpeciesRax infers species tree branch lengths in units of expected substitutions per site and branch support values via paralogy-aware quartets extracted from the gene family trees. Using both empirical and simulated data sets we show that SpeciesRax is at least as accurate as the best competing methods while being one order of magnitude faster on large data sets at the same time. We used SpeciesRax to infer a biologically plausible rooted phylogeny of the vertebrates comprising 188 species from 31,612 gene families in 1 h using 40 cores. SpeciesRax is available under GNU GPL at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/GeneRax and on BioConda.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benoit Morel
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany.,Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Paul Schade
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Sarah Lutteropp
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- ELTE-MTA "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Dept. Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege M. út 29-33. H-1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Computational Molecular Evolution group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany.,Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
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22
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Harris BJ, Sheridan PO, Davín AA, Gubry-Rangin C, Szöllősi GJ, Williams TA. Rooting Species Trees Using Gene Tree-Species Tree Reconciliation. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2569:189-211. [PMID: 36083449 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2691-7_9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Interpreting phylogenetic trees requires a root, which provides the direction of evolution and polarizes ancestor-descendant relationships. But inferring the root using genetic data is difficult, particularly in cases where the closest available outgroup is only distantly related, which are common for microbes. In this chapter, we present a workflow for estimating rooted species trees and the evolutionary history of the gene families that evolve within them using probabilistic gene tree-species tree reconciliation. We illustrate the pipeline using a small dataset of prokaryotic genomes, for which the example scripts can be run using modest computer resources. We describe the rooting method used in this work in the context or other rooting strategies and discuss some of the limitations and opportunities presented by probabilistic gene tree-species tree reconciliation methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brogan J Harris
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Paul O Sheridan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | - Adrián A Davín
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | | | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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23
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Davín AA, Schrempf D, Williams TA, Hugenholtz P, Szöllősi GJ. Relative Time Inference Using Lateral Gene Transfers. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2569:75-94. [PMID: 36083444 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2691-7_4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Many organisms are able to incorporate exogenous DNA into their genomes. This process, called lateral gene transfer (LGT), has the potential to benefit the recipient organism by providing useful coding sequences, such as antibiotic resistance genes or enzymes which expand the organism's metabolic niche. For evolutionary biologists, LGTs have often been considered a nuisance because they complicate the reconstruction of the underlying species tree that many analyses aim to recover. However, LGT events between distinct organisms harbor information on the relative divergence time of the donor and recipient lineages. As a result transfers provide a novel and as yet mostly unexplored source of information to determine the order of divergence of clades, with the potential for absolute dating if linked to the fossil record.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrián A Davín
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
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24
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Abstract
The microsporidia are a phylum of intracellular parasites that represent the eukaryotic cell in a state of extreme reduction, with genomes and metabolic capabilities embodying eukaryotic cells in arguably their most streamlined state. Over the past 20 years, microsporidian genomics has become a rapidly expanding field starting with sequencing of the genome of Encephalitozoon cuniculi, one of the first ever sequenced eukaryotes, to the current situation where we have access to the data from over 30 genomes across 20+ genera. Reaching back further in evolutionary history, to the point where microsporidia diverged from other eukaryotic lineages, we now also have genomic data for some of the closest known relatives of the microsporidia such as Rozella allomycis, Metchnikovella spp. and Amphiamblys sp. Data for these organisms allow us to better understand the genomic processes that shaped the emergence of the microsporidia as a group. These intensive genomic efforts have revealed some of the processes that have shaped microsporidian cells and genomes including patterns of genome expansions and contractions through gene gain and loss, whole genome duplication, differential patterns of invasion and purging of transposable elements. All these processes have been shown to occur across short and longer time scales to give rise to a phylum of parasites with dynamic genomes with a diversity of sizes and organisations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Jahcub Trew
- School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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25
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Szöllősi GJ, Höhna S, Williams TA, Schrempf D, Daubin V, Boussau B. Relative time constraints improve molecular dating. Syst Biol 2021; 71:797-809. [PMID: 34668564 PMCID: PMC9203062 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syab084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Dating the tree of life is central to understanding the evolution of life on Earth. Molecular clocks calibrated with fossils represent the state of the art for inferring the ages of major groups. Yet, other information on the timing of species diversification can be used to date the tree of life. For example, horizontal gene transfer events and ancient coevolutionary interactions such as (endo)symbioses occur between contemporaneous species and thus can imply temporal relationships between two nodes in a phylogeny. Temporal constraints from these alternative sources can be particularly helpful when the geological record is sparse, for example, for microorganisms, which represent the majority of extant and extinct biodiversity. Here, we present a new method to combine fossil calibrations and relative age constraints to estimate chronograms. We provide an implementation of relative age constraints in RevBayes that can be combined in a modular manner with the wide range of molecular dating methods available in the software. We use both realistic simulations and empirical datasets of 40 Cyanobacteria and 62 Archaea to evaluate our method. We show that the combination of relative age constraints with fossil calibrations significantly improves the estimation of node ages. [Archaea, Bayesian analysis, cyanobacteria, dating, endosymbiosis, lateral gene transfer, MCMC, molecular clock, phylogenetic dating, relaxed molecular clock, revbayes, tree of life.]
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Affiliation(s)
- Gergely J Szöllősi
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület"' Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Pázmány P. stny. 1A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University,Pázmány P. stny. 1A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Sebastian Höhna
- GeoBio-Center LMU, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Richard-Wagner Straße 10, 80333 Munich, Germany; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Paleontology & Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Richard-Wagner Straße 10, 80333 Munich, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Ave, Bristol, BS8 1TH, United Kingdom
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Dept. Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. stny. 1A., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Vincent Daubin
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive UMR 5558, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Bastien Boussau
- Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive UMR 5558, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France
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26
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Abstract
The nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) are a diverse group that currently contain the largest known virions and genomes, also called giant viruses. The first giant virus was isolated and described nearly 20 years ago. Their genome sizes were larger than for any other known virus at the time and it contained a number of genes that had not been previously described in any virus. The origin and evolution of these unusually complex viruses has been puzzling, and various mechanisms have been put forward to explain how some NCLDVs could have reached genome sizes and coding capacity overlapping with those of cellular microbes. Here we critically discuss the evidence and arguments on this topic. We have also updated and systematically reanalysed protein families of the NCLDVs to further study their origin and evolution. Our analyses further highlight the small number of widely shared genes and extreme genomic plasticity among NCLDVs that are shaped via combinations of gene duplications, deletions, lateral gene transfers and de novo creation of protein-coding genes. The dramatic expansions of the genome size and protein-coding gene capacity characteristic of some NCLDVs is now increasingly understood to be driven by environmental factors rather than reflecting relationships to an ancient common ancestor among a hypothetical cellular lineage. Thus, the evolution of NCLDVs is writ large viral, and their origin, like all other viral lineages, remains unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heli A M Mönttinen
- Newcastle University Biosciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.,Present address: Institute of Biotechnology, Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Viikki Biocenter 2, Helsinki 00014, Finland
| | - Cedric Bicep
- Newcastle University Biosciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.,Present address: Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, LMGE, F-63000 Clermont Ferrand, France
| | - Tom A Williams
- Newcastle University Biosciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.,School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Ave., Bristol, BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Robert P Hirt
- Newcastle University Biosciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
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27
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Liu J, Tassinari M, Souza DP, Naskar S, Noel JK, Bohuszewicz O, Buck M, Williams TA, Baum B, Low HH. Bacterial Vipp1 and PspA are members of the ancient ESCRT-III membrane-remodeling superfamily. Cell 2021; 184:3660-3673.e18. [PMID: 34166615 PMCID: PMC8281802 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.05.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Membrane remodeling and repair are essential for all cells. Proteins that perform these functions include Vipp1/IM30 in photosynthetic plastids, PspA in bacteria, and ESCRT-III in eukaryotes. Here, using a combination of evolutionary and structural analyses, we show that these protein families are homologous and share a common ancient evolutionary origin that likely predates the last universal common ancestor. This homology is evident in cryo-electron microscopy structures of Vipp1 rings from the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme presented over a range of symmetries. Each ring is assembled from rungs that stack and progressively tilt to form dome-shaped curvature. Assembly is facilitated by hinges in the Vipp1 monomer, similar to those in ESCRT-III proteins, which allow the formation of flexible polymers. Rings have an inner lumen that is able to bind and deform membranes. Collectively, these data suggest conserved mechanistic principles that underlie Vipp1, PspA, and ESCRT-III-dependent membrane remodeling across all domains of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiwei Liu
- Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College, London, UK
| | | | - Diorge P Souza
- MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London, London, UK; Division of Cell Biology, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Souvik Naskar
- Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Jeffrey K Noel
- Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Martin Buck
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Buzz Baum
- MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London, London, UK; Division of Cell Biology, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK; Institute for the Physics of Living Systems, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Harry H Low
- Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College, London, UK.
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28
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Antón Z, Weijman JF, Williams C, Moody ERR, Mantell J, Yip YY, Cross JA, Williams TA, Steiner RA, Crump MP, Woolfson DN, Dodding MP. Molecular mechanism for kinesin-1 direct membrane recognition. Sci Adv 2021; 7:7/31/eabg6636. [PMID: 34321209 PMCID: PMC8318374 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg6636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The cargo-binding capabilities of cytoskeletal motor proteins have expanded during evolution through both gene duplication and alternative splicing. For the light chains of the kinesin-1 family of microtubule motors, this has resulted in an array of carboxyl-terminal domain sequences of unknown molecular function. Here, combining phylogenetic analyses with biophysical, biochemical, and cell biology approaches, we identify a highly conserved membrane-induced curvature-sensitive amphipathic helix within this region of a subset of long kinesin light-chain paralogs and splice isoforms. This helix mediates the direct binding of kinesin-1 to lipid membranes. Membrane binding requires specific anionic phospholipids, and it contributes to kinesin-1-dependent lysosome positioning, a canonical activity that, until now, has been attributed exclusively the recognition of organelle-associated cargo adaptor proteins. This leads us to propose a protein-lipid coincidence detection framework for kinesin-1-mediated organelle transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zuriñe Antón
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Johannes F Weijman
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Christopher Williams
- School of Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
- Bristol BioDesign Institute, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Edmund R R Moody
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Judith Mantell
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Yan Y Yip
- Randall Centre of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Jessica A Cross
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
- School of Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Roberto A Steiner
- Randall Centre of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London, UK
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Matthew P Crump
- School of Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
- Bristol BioDesign Institute, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Derek N Woolfson
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK
- School of Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
- Bristol BioDesign Institute, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Mark P Dodding
- School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK.
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29
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Wang Y, Wegener G, Williams TA, Xie R, Hou J, Tian C, Zhang Y, Wang F, Xiao X. A methylotrophic origin of methanogenesis and early divergence of anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolism. Sci Adv 2021; 7:eabj1453. [PMID: 34215592 PMCID: PMC11057702 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj1453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Methanogens are considered as one of the earliest life forms on Earth, and together with anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea, they have crucial effects on climate stability. However, the origin and evolution of anaerobic alkane metabolism in the domain Archaea remain controversial. Here, we present evidence that methylotrophic methanogenesis was the ancestral form of this metabolism. Carbon dioxide-reducing methanogenesis developed later through the evolution of tetrahydromethanopterin S-methyltransferase, which linked methanogenesis to the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for energy conservation. Anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolisms in Archaea also originated early, with genes coding for the activation of short-chain or even long-chain alkanes likely evolving from an ethane-metabolizing ancestor. These genes were likely horizontally transferred to multiple archaeal clades including Candidatus (Ca) Bathyarchaeia, Ca. Lokiarchaeia, Ca. Hadarchaeia, and the methanogenic Ca. Methanoliparia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinzhao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
| | - Gunter Wegener
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, 28359 Bremen, Germany
- MARUM, Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TH Bristol, UK
| | - Ruize Xie
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Jialin Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Chen Tian
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Yu Zhang
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Fengping Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiang Xiao
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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30
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Coleman GA, Davín AA, Mahendrarajah TA, Szánthó LL, Spang A, Hugenholtz P, Szöllősi GJ, Williams TA. A rooted phylogeny resolves early bacterial evolution. Science 2021; 372:372/6542/eabe0511. [PMID: 33958449 DOI: 10.1126/science.abe0511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 11/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
A rooted bacterial tree is necessary to understand early evolution, but the position of the root is contested. Here, we model the evolution of 11,272 gene families to identify the root, extent of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and the nature of the last bacterial common ancestor (LBCA). Our analyses root the tree between the major clades Terrabacteria and Gracilicutes and suggest that LBCA was a free-living flagellated, rod-shaped double-membraned organism. Contrary to recent proposals, our analyses reject a basal placement of the Candidate Phyla Radiation, which instead branches sister to Chloroflexota within Terrabacteria. While most gene families (92%) have evidence of HGT, overall, two-thirds of gene transmissions have been vertical, suggesting that a rooted tree provides a meaningful frame of reference for interpreting bacterial evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gareth A Coleman
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Adrián A Davín
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Tara A Mahendrarajah
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, 1790 AB Den Burg, Netherlands
| | - Lénárd L Szánthó
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anja Spang
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, 1790 AB Den Burg, Netherlands.,Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. .,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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Abstract
There is an expectation that analyses of molecular sequences might be able to distinguish between alternative hypotheses for ancient relationships, but the phylogenetic methods used and types of data analyzed are of critical importance in any attempt to recover historical signal. Here, we discuss some common issues that can influence the topology of trees obtained when using overly simple models to analyze molecular data that often display complicated patterns of sequence heterogeneity. To illustrate our discussion, we have used three examples of inferred relationships which have changed radically as models and methods of analysis have improved. In two of these examples, the sister-group relationship between thermophilic Thermus and mesophilic Deinococcus, and the position of long-branch Microsporidia among eukaryotes, we show that recovering what is now generally considered to be the correct tree is critically dependent on the fit between model and data. In the third example, the position of eukaryotes in the tree of life, the hypothesis that is currently supported by the best available methods is fundamentally different from the classical view of relationships between major cellular domains. Since heterogeneity appears to be pervasive and varied among all molecular sequence data, and even the best available models can still struggle to deal with some problems, the issues we discuss are generally relevant to phylogenetic analyses. It remains essential to maintain a critical attitude to all trees as hypotheses of relationship that may change with more data and better methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
| | - Dominik Schrempf
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- Dept. of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.,Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Cymon J Cox
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, Gambelas, 8005-319 Faro, Portugal
| | - Peter G Foster
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
| | - T Martin Embley
- Biosciences Institute, Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, United Kingdom
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32
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Strassert JFH, Irisarri I, Williams TA, Burki F. A molecular timescale for eukaryote evolution with implications for the origin of red algal-derived plastids. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1879. [PMID: 33767194 PMCID: PMC7994803 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22044-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
In modern oceans, eukaryotic phytoplankton is dominated by lineages with red algal-derived plastids such as diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores. Despite the ecological importance of these groups and many others representing a huge diversity of forms and lifestyles, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of their evolution and how they obtained their plastids. New hypotheses have emerged to explain the acquisition of red algal-derived plastids by serial endosymbiosis, but the chronology of these putative independent plastid acquisitions remains untested. Here, we establish a timeframe for the origin of red algal-derived plastids under scenarios of serial endosymbiosis, using Bayesian molecular clock analyses applied on a phylogenomic dataset with broad sampling of eukaryote diversity. We find that the hypotheses of serial endosymbiosis are chronologically possible, as the stem lineages of all red plastid-containing groups overlap in time. This period in the Meso- and Neoproterozoic Eras set the stage for the later expansion to dominance of red algal-derived primary production in the contemporary oceans, which profoundly altered the global geochemical and ecological conditions of the Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jürgen F H Strassert
- Department of Organismal Biology, Program in Systematic Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Ecosystem Research, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
| | - Iker Irisarri
- Department of Organismal Biology, Program in Systematic Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
- Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, University of Göttingen, and Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS), Göttingen, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Bristol, UK
| | - Fabien Burki
- Department of Organismal Biology, Program in Systematic Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
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33
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Wang Y, Wegener G, Williams TA, Xie R, Hou J, Wang F, Xiao X. Retraction of the Research Article: "A methylotrophic origin of methanogenesis and early divergence of anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolism". Sci Adv 2021; 7:7/8/eabh1051. [PMID: 33597252 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh1051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yinzhao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
| | - Gunter Wegener
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, 28359 Bremen, Germany
- MARUM, Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TH Bristol, UK
| | - Ruize Xie
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Jialin Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Fengping Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiang Xiao
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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Wang Y, Wegener G, Williams TA, Xie R, Hou J, Wang F, Xiao X. A methylotrophic origin of methanogenesis and early divergence of anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolism. Sci Adv 2021; 7:eabd7180. [PMID: 33568477 PMCID: PMC7875538 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd7180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Methanogens are considered as one of the earliest life forms on Earth, and together with anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea, they have crucial effects on climate stability. Yet, the origin and evolution of anaerobic alkane metabolism in the domain Archaea remain controversial. Here, we show that methanogenesis was already present in the common ancestor of Euryarchaeota, TACK archaea, and Asgard archaea likely in the late Hadean or early Archean eon and that the ancestral methanogen was dependent on methylated compounds and hydrogen. Carbon dioxide-reducing methanogenesis developed later through the evolution of tetrahydromethanopterin S-methyltransferase, which linked methanogenesis to the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for energy conservation. Multicarbon alkane metabolisms in Archaea also originated early, with genes coding for the activation of short- or even long-chain alkanes likely evolving from an ethane-metabolizing ancestor. These genes were likely horizontally transferred to multiple archaeal clades including Candidatus (Ca) Bathyarchaeota, Ca. Helarchaeota, Ca Hadesarchaeota, and the methanogenic Ca. Methanoliparia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinzhao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
| | - Gunter Wegener
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, 28359 Bremen, Germany
- MARUM, Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TH Bristol, UK
| | - Ruize Xie
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Jialin Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Fengping Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiang Xiao
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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Kay C, Williams TA, Gibson W. Mitochondrial DNAs provide insight into trypanosome phylogeny and molecular evolution. BMC Evol Biol 2020; 20:161. [PMID: 33297939 PMCID: PMC7724854 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-020-01701-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Trypanosomes are single-celled eukaryotic parasites characterised by the unique biology of their mitochondrial DNA. African livestock trypanosomes impose a major burden on agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa, but are poorly understood compared to those that cause sleeping sickness and Chagas disease in humans. Here we explore the potential of the maxicircle, a component of trypanosome mitochondrial DNA to study the evolutionary history of trypanosomes. Results We used long-read sequencing to completely assemble maxicircle mitochondrial DNA from four previously uncharacterized African trypanosomes, and leveraged these assemblies to scaffold and assemble a further 103 trypanosome maxicircle gene coding regions from published short-read data. While synteny was largely conserved, there were repeated, independent losses of Complex I genes. Comparison of pre-edited and non-edited genes revealed the impact of RNA editing on nucleotide composition, with non-edited genes approaching the limits of GC loss. African tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes showed high levels of RNA editing compared to other trypanosomes. The gene coding regions of maxicircle mitochondrial DNAs were used to construct time-resolved phylogenetic trees, revealing deep divergence events among isolates of the pathogens Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense. Conclusions Our data represents a new resource for experimental and evolutionary analyses of trypanosome phylogeny, molecular evolution and function. Molecular clock analyses yielded a timescale for trypanosome evolution congruent with major biogeographical events in Africa and revealed the recent emergence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and T. equiperdum, major human and animal pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Kay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - T A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - W Gibson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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36
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Hannaford NE, Heaps SE, Nye TMW, Williams TA, Embley TM. Incorporating compositional heterogeneity into Lie Markov models for phylogenetic inference. Ann Appl Stat 2020. [DOI: 10.1214/20-aoas1369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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37
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Sheridan PO, Raguideau S, Quince C, Holden J, Zhang L, Williams TA, Gubry-Rangin C. Gene duplication drives genome expansion in a major lineage of Thaumarchaeota. Nat Commun 2020; 11:5494. [PMID: 33127895 PMCID: PMC7603488 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19132-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2020] [Accepted: 09/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Ammonia-oxidising archaea of the phylum Thaumarchaeota are important organisms in the nitrogen cycle, but the mechanisms driving their radiation into diverse ecosystems remain underexplored. Here, existing thaumarchaeotal genomes are complemented with 12 genomes belonging to the previously under-sampled Nitrososphaerales to investigate the impact of lateral gene transfer (LGT), gene duplication and loss across thaumarchaeotal evolution. We reveal a major role for gene duplication in driving genome expansion subsequent to early LGT. In particular, two large LGT events are identified into Nitrososphaerales and the fate of these gene families is highly lineage-specific, being lost in some descendant lineages, but undergoing extensive duplication in others, suggesting niche-specific roles. Notably, some genes involved in carbohydrate transport or coenzyme metabolism were duplicated, likely facilitating niche specialisation in soils and sediments. Overall, our results suggest that LGT followed by gene duplication drives Nitrososphaerales evolution, highlighting a previously under-appreciated mechanism of genome expansion in archaea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul O Sheridan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | | | - Christopher Quince
- Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
- Organisms and Ecosystems, Earlham Institute, Norwich, UK
- Gut Microbes and Health, Quadram Institute, Norwich, UK
| | - Jennifer Holden
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
| | - Lihong Zhang
- European Centre for Environment and Human Health, Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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38
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Martijn J, Schön ME, Lind AE, Vosseberg J, Williams TA, Spang A, Ettema TJG. Hikarchaeia demonstrate an intermediate stage in the methanogen-to-halophile transition. Nat Commun 2020; 11:5490. [PMID: 33127909 PMCID: PMC7599335 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19200-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 10/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Halobacteria (henceforth: Haloarchaea) are predominantly aerobic halophiles that are thought to have evolved from anaerobic methanogens. This remarkable transformation most likely involved an extensive influx of bacterial genes. Whether it entailed a single massive transfer event or a gradual stream of transfers remains a matter of debate. To address this, genomes that descend from methanogen-to-halophile intermediates are necessary. Here, we present five such near-complete genomes of Marine Group IV archaea (Hikarchaeia), the closest known relatives of Haloarchaea. Their inclusion in gene tree-aware ancestral reconstructions reveals an intermediate stage that had already lost a large number of genes, including nearly all of those involved in methanogenesis and the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. In contrast, the last Haloarchaea common ancestor gained a large number of genes and expanded its aerobic respiration and salt/UV resistance gene repertoire. Our results suggest that complex and gradual patterns of gain and loss shaped the methanogen-to-halophile transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joran Martijn
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Max E Schön
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Anders E Lind
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Julian Vosseberg
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Anja Spang
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Utrecht University, Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Thijs J G Ettema
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
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39
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Williams TA, Cox CJ, Foster PG, Szöllősi GJ, Embley TM. Author Correction: Phylogenomics provides robust support for a two-domains tree of life. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:1568. [PMID: 33077932 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01347-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Cymon J Cox
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - Peter G Foster
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tihany, Hungary
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
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40
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Lewis WH, Lind AE, Sendra KM, Onsbring H, Williams TA, Esteban GF, Hirt RP, Ettema TJG, Embley TM. Convergent Evolution of Hydrogenosomes from Mitochondria by Gene Transfer and Loss. Mol Biol Evol 2020; 37:524-539. [PMID: 31647561 PMCID: PMC6993867 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msz239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Hydrogenosomes are H2-producing mitochondrial homologs found in some anaerobic microbial eukaryotes that provide a rare intracellular niche for H2-utilizing endosymbiotic archaea. Among ciliates, anaerobic and aerobic lineages are interspersed, demonstrating that the switch to an anaerobic lifestyle with hydrogenosomes has occurred repeatedly and independently. To investigate the molecular details of this transition, we generated genomic and transcriptomic data sets from anaerobic ciliates representing three distinct lineages. Our data demonstrate that hydrogenosomes have evolved from ancestral mitochondria in each case and reveal different degrees of independent mitochondrial genome and proteome reductive evolution, including the first example of complete mitochondrial genome loss in ciliates. Intriguingly, the FeFe-hydrogenase used for generating H2 has a unique domain structure among eukaryotes and appears to have been present, potentially through a single lateral gene transfer from an unknown donor, in the common aerobic ancestor of all three lineages. The early acquisition and retention of FeFe-hydrogenase helps to explain the facility whereby mitochondrial function can be so radically modified within this diverse and ecologically important group of microbial eukaryotes.
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Affiliation(s)
- William H Lewis
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom.,Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.,Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Anders E Lind
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Kacper M Sendra
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Henning Onsbring
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.,Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Genoveva F Esteban
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom
| | - Robert P Hirt
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Thijs J G Ettema
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.,Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
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41
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Ferguson DCJ, Mokim JH, Meinders M, Moody ERR, Williams TA, Cooke S, Trakarnsanga K, Daniels DE, Ferrer-Vicens I, Shoemark D, Tipgomut C, Macinnes KA, Wilson MC, Singleton BK, Frayne J. Characterization and evolutionary origin of novel C 2H 2 zinc finger protein (ZNF648) required for both erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation in humans. Haematologica 2020; 106:2859-2873. [PMID: 33054117 PMCID: PMC8561289 DOI: 10.3324/haematol.2020.256347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Human ZNF648 is a novel poly C-terminal C2H2 zinc finger protein identified amongst the most dysregulated proteins in erythroid cells differentiated from iPSC. Its nuclear localisation and structure indicate it is likely a DNA-binding protein. Using a combination of ZNF648 overexpression in an iPSC line and primary adult erythroid cells, ZNF648 knockdown in primary adult erythroid cells and megakaryocytes, comparative proteomics and transcriptomics we show that ZNF648 is required for both erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation. Orthologues of ZNF648 were detected across Mammals, Reptilia, Actinopterygii, in some Aves, Amphibia and Coelacanthiformes suggesting the gene originated in the common ancestor of Osteichthyes (Euteleostomi or bony fish). Conservation of the C-terminal zinc finger domain is higher, with some variation in zinc finger number but a core of at least six zinc fingers conserved across all groups, with the N-terminus recognisably similar within but not between major lineages. This suggests the N-terminus of ZNF648 evolves faster than the C-terminus, however this is not due to exon-shuffling as the entire coding region of ZNF648 is within a single exon. As for other such transcription factors, the N-terminus likely carries out regulatory functions, but showed no sequence similarity to any known domains. The greater functional constraint on the zinc finger domain suggests ZNF648 binds at least some similar regions of DNA in the different organisms. However, divergence of the N-terminal region may enable differential expression, allowing adaptation of function in the different organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel C. J. Ferguson
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,*DCJF and JHM contributed equally as co-first authors
| | - Juraidah Haji Mokim
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,*DCJF and JHM contributed equally as co-first authors
| | | | | | - Tom A. Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Sarah Cooke
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Kongtana Trakarnsanga
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Deborah E. Daniels
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Red Blood Cell Products, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | | | | | - Chartsiam Tipgomut
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Katherine A. Macinnes
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Red Blood Cell Products, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | | | - Belinda K. Singleton
- NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Red Blood Cell Products, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,Bristol Institute for Transfusion Sciences, National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), Bristol, UK
| | - Jan Frayne
- School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK.; NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Red blood cell products, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK.
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42
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Dombrowski N, Williams TA, Sun J, Woodcroft BJ, Lee JH, Minh BQ, Rinke C, Spang A. Undinarchaeota illuminate DPANN phylogeny and the impact of gene transfer on archaeal evolution. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3939. [PMID: 32770105 PMCID: PMC7414124 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17408-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 06/25/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The recently discovered DPANN archaea are a potentially deep-branching, monophyletic radiation of organisms with small cells and genomes. However, the monophyly and early emergence of the various DPANN clades and their role in life's evolution are debated. Here, we reconstructed and analysed genomes of an uncharacterized archaeal phylum (Candidatus Undinarchaeota), revealing that its members have small genomes and, while potentially being able to conserve energy through fermentation, likely depend on partner organisms for the acquisition of certain metabolites. Our phylogenomic analyses robustly place Undinarchaeota as an independent lineage between two highly supported 'DPANN' clans. Further, our analyses suggest that DPANN have exchanged core genes with their hosts, adding to the difficulty of placing DPANN in the tree of life. This pattern can be sufficiently dominant to allow identifying known symbiont-host clades based on routes of gene transfer. Together, our work provides insights into the origins and evolution of DPANN and their hosts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Dombrowski
- NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, NL-1790 AB, Den Burg, The Netherlands
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Jiarui Sun
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Benjamin J Woodcroft
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Jun-Hoe Lee
- Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Bui Quang Minh
- Research School of Computer Science and Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Christian Rinke
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Anja Spang
- NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, NL-1790 AB, Den Burg, The Netherlands.
- Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75123, Uppsala, Sweden.
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43
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Heaps SE, Nye TMW, Boys RJ, Williams TA, Cherlin S, Embley TM. Generalizing rate heterogeneity across sites in statistical phylogenetics. STAT MODEL 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/1471082x19829937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Phylogenetics uses alignments of molecular sequence data to learn about evolutionary trees relating species. Along branches, sequence evolution is modelled using a continuous-time Markov process characterized by an instantaneous rate matrix. Early models assumed the same rate matrix governed substitutions at all sites of the alignment, ignoring variation in evolutionary pressures. Substantial improvements in phylogenetic inference and model fit were achieved by augmenting these models with multiplicative random effects that describe the result of variation in selective constraints and allow sites to evolve at different rates which linearly scale a baseline rate matrix. Motivated by this pioneering work, we consider an extension using a quadratic, rather than linear, transformation. The resulting models allow for variation in the selective coefficients of different types of point mutation at a site in addition to variation in selective constraints. We derive properties of the extended models. For certain non-stationary processes, the extension gives a model that allows variation in sequence composition, both across sites and taxa. We adopt a Bayesian approach, describe an MCMC algorithm for posterior inference and provide software. Our quadratic models are applied to alignments spanning the tree of life and compared with site-homogeneous and linear models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Heaps
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Tom MW Nye
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Richard J Boys
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Svetlana Cherlin
- Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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44
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Stoddard PR, Lynch EM, Farrell DP, Dosey AM, DiMaio F, Williams TA, Kollman JM, Murray AW, Garner EC. Polymerization in the actin ATPase clan regulates hexokinase activity in yeast. Science 2020; 367:1039-1042. [PMID: 32108112 DOI: 10.1126/science.aay5359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
The actin fold is found in cytoskeletal polymers, chaperones, and various metabolic enzymes. Many actin-fold proteins, such as the carbohydrate kinases, do not polymerize. We found that Glk1, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae glucokinase, forms two-stranded filaments with ultrastructure that is distinct from that of cytoskeletal polymers. In cells, Glk1 polymerized upon sugar addition and depolymerized upon sugar withdrawal. Polymerization inhibits enzymatic activity; the Glk1 monomer-polymer equilibrium sets a maximum rate of glucose phosphorylation regardless of Glk1 concentration. A mutation that eliminated Glk1 polymerization alleviated concentration-dependent enzyme inhibition. Yeast containing nonpolymerizing Glk1 were less fit when growing on sugars and more likely to die when refed glucose. Glk1 polymerization arose independently from other actin-related filaments and may allow yeast to rapidly modulate glucokinase activity as nutrient availability changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick R Stoddard
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Eric M Lynch
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Daniel P Farrell
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Annie M Dosey
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Frank DiMaio
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Justin M Kollman
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Andrew W Murray
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. .,Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Ethan C Garner
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. .,Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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45
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Harris BJ, Harrison CJ, Hetherington AM, Williams TA. Phylogenomic Evidence for the Monophyly of Bryophytes and the Reductive Evolution of Stomata. Curr Biol 2020; 30:2001-2012.e2. [PMID: 32302587 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2019] [Revised: 02/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/18/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The origin of land plants was accompanied by new adaptations to life on land, including the evolution of stomata-pores on the surface of plants that regulate gas exchange. The genes that underpin the development and function of stomata have been extensively studied in model angiosperms, such as Arabidopsis. However, little is known about stomata in bryophytes, and their evolutionary origins and ancestral function remain poorly understood. Here, we resolve the position of bryophytes in the land plant tree and investigate the evolutionary origins of genes that specify stomatal development and function. Our analyses recover bryophyte monophyly and demonstrate that the guard cell toolkit is more ancient than has been appreciated previously. We show that a range of core guard cell genes, including SPCH/MUTE, SMF, and FAMA, map back to the common ancestor of embryophytes or even earlier. These analyses suggest that the first embryophytes possessed stomata that were more sophisticated than previously envisioned and that the stomata of bryophytes have undergone reductive evolution, including their complete loss from liverworts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brogan J Harris
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - C Jill Harrison
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Alistair M Hetherington
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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46
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Williams TA, Cox CJ, Foster PG, Szöllősi GJ, Embley TM. Phylogenomics provides robust support for a two-domains tree of life. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:138-147. [PMID: 31819234 PMCID: PMC6942926 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-1040-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 110] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 10/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Hypotheses about the origin of eukaryotic cells are classically framed within the context of a universal 'tree of life' based on conserved core genes. Vigorous ongoing debate about eukaryote origins is based on assertions that the topology of the tree of life depends on the taxa included and the choice and quality of genomic data analysed. Here we have reanalysed the evidence underpinning those claims and apply more data to the question by using supertree and coalescent methods to interrogate >3,000 gene families in archaea and eukaryotes. We find that eukaryotes consistently originate from within the archaea in a two-domains tree when due consideration is given to the fit between model and data. Our analyses support a close relationship between eukaryotes and Asgard archaea and identify the Heimdallarchaeota as the current best candidate for the closest archaeal relatives of the eukaryotic nuclear lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Cymon J Cox
- Centro de Ciências do Mar, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - Peter G Foster
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Gergely J Szöllősi
- MTA-ELTE "Lendület" Evolutionary Genomics Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tihany, Hungary
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
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47
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Isner JC, Olteanu VA, Hetherington AJ, Coupel-Ledru A, Sun P, Pridgeon AJ, Jones GS, Oates M, Williams TA, Maathuis FJM, Kift R, Webb AR, Gough J, Franklin KA, Hetherington AM. Short- and Long-Term Effects of UVA on Arabidopsis Are Mediated by a Novel cGMP Phosphodiesterase. Curr Biol 2019; 29:2580-2585.e4. [PMID: 31353185 PMCID: PMC6692503 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2019] [Revised: 06/05/2019] [Accepted: 06/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Although UVA radiation (315-400 nm) represents 95% of the UV radiation reaching the earth's surface, surprisingly little is known about its effects on plants [1]. We show that in Arabidopsis, short-term exposure to UVA inhibits the opening of stomata, and this requires a reduction in the cytosolic level of cGMP. This process is independent of UVR8, the UVB receptor. A cGMP-activated phosphodiesterase (AtCN-PDE1) was responsible for the UVA-induced decrease in cGMP in Arabidopsis. AtCN-PDE1-like proteins form a clade within the large HD-domain/PDEase-like protein superfamily, but no eukaryotic members of this subfamily have been functionally characterized. These genes have been lost from the genomes of metazoans but are otherwise conserved as single-copy genes across the tree of life. In longer-term experiments, UVA radiation increased growth and decreased water-use efficiency. These experiments revealed that PDE1 is also a negative regulator of growth. As the PDE1 gene is ancient and not represented in animal lineages, it is likely that at least one element of cGMP signaling in plants has evolved differently to the system present in metazoans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Charles Isner
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Vlad-Aris Olteanu
- Department of Computer Science, Merchant Venturers Building, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK
| | | | - Aude Coupel-Ledru
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Peng Sun
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Ashley J Pridgeon
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Glyndyr S Jones
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Matthew Oates
- Department of Computer Science, Merchant Venturers Building, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | | | - Richard Kift
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Simon Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Ann R Webb
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Simon Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Julian Gough
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QU, UK
| | - Keara A Franklin
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
| | - Alistair M Hetherington
- School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK.
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48
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Major P, Sendra KM, Dean P, Williams TA, Watson AK, Thwaites DT, Embley TM, Hirt RP. A new family of cell surface located purine transporters in Microsporidia and related fungal endoparasites. eLife 2019; 8:47037. [PMID: 31355745 PMCID: PMC6699826 DOI: 10.7554/elife.47037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Plasma membrane-located transport proteins are key adaptations for obligate intracellular Microsporidia parasites, because they can use them to steal host metabolites the parasites need to grow and replicate. However, despite their importance, the functions and substrate specificities of most Microsporidia transporters are unknown. Here, we provide functional data for a family of transporters conserved in all microsporidian genomes and also in the genomes of related endoparasites. The universal retention among otherwise highly reduced genomes indicates an important role for these transporters for intracellular parasites. Using Trachipleistophora hominis, a Microsporidia isolated from an HIV/AIDS patient, as our experimental model, we show that the proteins are ATP and GTP transporters located on the surface of parasites during their intracellular growth and replication. Our work identifies a new route for the acquisition of essential energy and nucleotides for a major group of intracellular parasites that infect most animal species including humans. Microsporidia are a group of microscopic parasites that spend part of their lives inside the cells of a broad range of animal hosts, including humans. These parasites are considered to be related to fungi, some of which also live within the cells of other species and are known as fungal endoparasites. One of the shared characteristics of these parasites is that they cannot make nucleotides, molecules that are both the main source of energy of the cell and also the building blocks of DNA. Instead, they take nucleotides, or the materials needed to make nucleotides, from their host cells. Once Microsporidia have depleted a host cell, they turn into spores that can survive outside the host until they invade a new cell, starting the cycle anew. Microsporidia have proteins on their surface, including nucleotide transporter family proteins (NTT), that enable them to import nucleotides from their host into themselves. Although most fungal endoparasites are also thought to steal nucleotides from their hosts, many do not have NTT proteins, raising the question of how they import the nucleotides. A group of proteins called the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) consists of proteins that were thought to transport the materials cells need to make nucleotides (which are also called nucleotide precursors). Members of this family are found throughout Microsporidia and related fungal endoparasites. These proteins could explain how fungal endoparasites take nucleotides from their hosts. To test this hypothesis, Major et al. infected mammalian cells with Microsporidia and then checked where two MFS proteins were located during infection. This showed that the proteins were on the surface of the endoparasites, implying that they could be nucleotide precursor transporters. Next, Major et al. genetically modified Escherichia coli bacteria so they would produce MFS proteins, and showed that the proteins could transport two types of nucleotides. Together these results show that MFS proteins could be responsible for nucleotide transport in fungal endoparasites. In addition to humans, Microsporidia and related fungal endoparasites infect a wide range of animals, including pollinating insects, which have ecological and economic importance. Given that Microsporidia can only survive if they take nucleotides from their hosts, knowing more about the proteins that import the nucleotides could lead to new cures for Microsporidia infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Major
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Kacper M Sendra
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Dean
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Tom A Williams
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew K Watson
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - David T Thwaites
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Robert P Hirt
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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49
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Coleman GA, Pancost RD, Williams TA. Investigating the Origins of Membrane Phospholipid Biosynthesis Genes Using Outgroup-Free Rooting. Genome Biol Evol 2019; 11:883-898. [PMID: 30753429 PMCID: PMC6431249 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the key differences between Bacteria and Archaea is their canonical membrane phospholipids, which are synthesized by distinct biosynthetic pathways with nonhomologous enzymes. This “lipid divide” has important implications for the early evolution of cells and the type of membrane phospholipids present in the last universal common ancestor. One of the main challenges in studies of membrane evolution is that the key biosynthetic genes are ancient and their evolutionary histories are poorly resolved. This poses major challenges for traditional rooting methods because the only available outgroups are distantly related. Here, we address this issue by using the best available substitution models for single-gene trees, by expanding our analyses to the diversity of uncultivated prokaryotes recently revealed by environmental genomics, and by using two complementary approaches to rooting that do not depend on outgroups. Consistent with some previous analyses, our rooted gene trees support extensive interdomain horizontal transfer of membrane phospholipid biosynthetic genes, primarily from Archaea to Bacteria. They also suggest that the capacity to make archaeal-type membrane phospholipids was already present in last universal common ancestor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gareth A Coleman
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
| | | | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
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50
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Heaps
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Tom MW Nye
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Richard J Boys
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Svetlana Cherlin
- Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - T Martin Embley
- Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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