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Phillips JE, Zheng Y, Pan D. Assembling a Hippo: the evolutionary emergence of an animal developmental signaling pathway. Trends Biochem Sci 2024:S0968-0004(24)00102-6. [PMID: 38729842 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2024.04.005] [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: 12/14/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024]
Abstract
Decades of work in developmental genetics has given us a deep mechanistic understanding of the fundamental signaling pathways underlying animal development. However, little is known about how these pathways emerged and changed over evolutionary time. Here, we review our current understanding of the evolutionary emergence of the Hippo pathway, a conserved signaling pathway that regulates tissue size in animals. This pathway has deep evolutionary roots, emerging piece by piece in the unicellular ancestors of animals, with a complete core pathway predating the origin of animals. Recent functional studies in close unicellular relatives of animals and early-branching animals suggest an ancestral function Hippo pathway of cytoskeletal regulation, which was subsequently co-opted to regulate proliferation and animal tissue size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan E Phillips
- Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
| | - Yonggang Zheng
- Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
| | - Duojia Pan
- Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
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2
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Phillips JE, Pan D. The Hippo kinase cascade regulates a contractile cell behavior and cell density in a close unicellular relative of animals. eLife 2024; 12:RP90818. [PMID: 38517944 PMCID: PMC10959527 DOI: 10.7554/elife.90818] [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] [Indexed: 03/24/2024] Open
Abstract
The genomes of close unicellular relatives of animals encode orthologs of many genes that regulate animal development. However, little is known about the function of such genes in unicellular organisms or the evolutionary process by which these genes came to function in multicellular development. The Hippo pathway, which regulates cell proliferation and tissue size in animals, is present in some of the closest unicellular relatives of animals, including the amoeboid organism Capsaspora owczarzaki. We previously showed that the Capsaspora ortholog of the Hippo pathway nuclear effector Yorkie/YAP/TAZ (coYki) regulates actin dynamics and the three-dimensional morphology of Capsaspora cell aggregates, but is dispensable for cell proliferation control (Phillips et al., 2022). However, the function of upstream Hippo pathway components, and whether and how they regulate coYki in Capsaspora, remained unknown. Here, we analyze the function of the upstream Hippo pathway kinases coHpo and coWts in Capsaspora by generating mutant lines for each gene. Loss of either kinase results in increased nuclear localization of coYki, indicating an ancient, premetazoan origin of this Hippo pathway regulatory mechanism. Strikingly, we find that loss of either kinase causes a contractile cell behavior and increased density of cell packing within Capsaspora aggregates. We further show that this increased cell density is not due to differences in proliferation, but rather actomyosin-dependent changes in the multicellular architecture of aggregates. Given its well-established role in cell density-regulated proliferation in animals, the increased density of cell packing in coHpo and coWts mutants suggests a shared and possibly ancient and conserved function of the Hippo pathway in cell density control. Together, these results implicate cytoskeletal regulation but not proliferation as an ancestral function of the Hippo pathway kinase cascade and uncover a novel role for Hippo signaling in regulating cell density in a proliferation-independent manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan E Phillips
- Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallasUnited States
| | - Duojia Pan
- Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallasUnited States
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3
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Charles-Orszag A, Petek-Seoane NA, Mullins RD. Archaeal actins and the origin of a multi-functional cytoskeleton. J Bacteriol 2024; 206:e0034823. [PMID: 38391233 PMCID: PMC10955848 DOI: 10.1128/jb.00348-23] [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] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Actin and actin-like proteins form filamentous polymers that carry out important cellular functions in all domains of life. In this review, we sketch a map of the function and regulation of actin-like proteins across bacteria, archaea, and eukarya, marking some of the terra incognita that remain in this landscape. We focus particular attention on archaea because mapping the structure and function of cytoskeletal systems across this domain promises to help us understand the evolutionary relationship between the (mostly) mono-functional actin-like filaments found in bacteria and the multi-functional actin cytoskeletons that characterize eukaryotic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Charles-Orszag
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Natalie A. Petek-Seoane
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - R. Dyche Mullins
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
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4
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Adams AN, Smith BJ, Raad TJ, Mueller RL. Gigantic animal cells suggest organellar scaling mechanisms across a 50-fold range in cell volume. Evolution 2024; 78:442-452. [PMID: 38113239 DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpad223] [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: 08/30/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
The largest cells are orders of magnitude bigger than the smallest cells. Organelle content scales to maintain cell function, with different organelles increasing in volume, length, or number as cells increase in size. Scaling may also reflect functional demands placed on organelles by increased cell size. Amphibians exhibit exceptional diversity in cell size. Using transmission electron microscopy, we analyzed 3 species whose enterocyte cell volumes range from 228 to 10,593 μm3. We show that nuclear volume increases by an increase in radius while mitochondrial volume increases by an increase in total network length; the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, with their complex shapes, are intermediate. Notably, all 4 organelle types increase in total volume proportional to cell volume, despite variation in functional (i.e., metabolic, transport) demands. This pattern suggests that organellar building blocks are incorporated into more or larger organelles following the same rules across species that vary ~50-fold in cell sizes, consistent with a "limited precursor" model for organellar scaling that, in turn, assumes equivalent cytoplasmic concentrations of organellar building block proteins. Taken together, our results lead us to hypothesize that salamanders have evolved increased biosynthetic capacity to maintain functional protein concentrations despite huge cell volumes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bradford Julian Smith
- Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering, Design & Computing, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
- Section of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States
| | - Thomas John Raad
- Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
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Klinger CM, Jimenez-Ruiz E, Mourier T, Klingl A, Lemgruber L, Pain A, Dacks JB, Meissner M. Evolutionary analysis identifies a Golgi pathway and correlates lineage-specific factors with endomembrane organelle emergence in apicomplexans. Cell Rep 2024; 43:113740. [PMID: 38363682 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113740] [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] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024] Open
Abstract
The organelle paralogy hypothesis (OPH) aims to explain the evolution of non-endosymbiotically derived organelles. It predicts that lineage-specific pathways or organelles should result when identity-encoding membrane-trafficking components duplicate and co-evolve. Here, we investigate the presence of such lineage-specific membrane-trafficking machinery paralogs in Apicomplexa, a globally important parasitic lineage. We are able to identify 18 paralogs of known membrane-trafficking machinery, in several cases co-incident with the presence of new endomembrane organelles in apicomplexans or their parent lineage, the Alveolata. Moreover, focused analysis of the apicomplexan Arf-like small GTPases (i.e., ArlX3) revealed a specific post-Golgi trafficking pathway. This pathway appears involved in delivery of proteins to micronemes and rhoptries, with knockdown demonstrating reduced invasion capacity. Overall, our data have identified an unforeseen post-Golgi trafficking pathway in apicomplexans and are consistent with the OPH mechanism acting to produce endomembrane pathways or organelles at various evolutionary stages across the alveolate lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christen M Klinger
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Women and Children's Health Research Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Elena Jimenez-Ruiz
- Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, LMU, Munich, Germany
| | - Tobias Mourier
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Programme, Biological, and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Andreas Klingl
- Pflanzliche Entwicklungsbiologie, Biozentrum der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
| | - Leandro Lemgruber
- Cellular Analysis Facility, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Arnab Pain
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Programme, Biological, and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; International Institute for Zoonosis Control, GI-CoRE, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Joel B Dacks
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Women and Children's Health Research Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweis), Czech Republic; Centre for Life's Origin and Evolution, Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Markus Meissner
- Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, LMU, Munich, Germany.
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Chavez CM, Groenewald M, Hulfachor AB, Kpurubu G, Huerta R, Hittinger CT, Rokas A. The cell morphological diversity of Saccharomycotina yeasts. FEMS Yeast Res 2024; 24:foad055. [PMID: 38142225 PMCID: PMC10804222 DOI: 10.1093/femsyr/foad055] [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: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 11/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The ∼1 200 known species in subphylum Saccharomycotina are a highly diverse clade of unicellular fungi. During its lifecycle, a typical yeast exhibits multiple cell types with various morphologies; these morphologies vary across Saccharomycotina species. Here, we synthesize the evolutionary dimensions of variation in cellular morphology of yeasts across the subphylum, focusing on variation in cell shape, cell size, type of budding, and filament production. Examination of 332 representative species across the subphylum revealed that the most common budding cell shapes are ovoid, spherical, and ellipsoidal, and that their average length and width is 5.6 µm and 3.6 µm, respectively. 58.4% of yeast species examined can produce filamentous cells, and 87.3% of species reproduce asexually by multilateral budding, which does not require utilization of cell polarity for mitosis. Interestingly, ∼1.8% of species examined have not been observed to produce budding cells, but rather only produce filaments of septate hyphae and/or pseudohyphae. 76.9% of yeast species examined have sexual cycle descriptions, with most producing one to four ascospores that are most commonly hat-shaped (37.4%). Systematic description of yeast cellular morphological diversity and reconstruction of its evolution promises to enrich our understanding of the evolutionary cell biology of this major fungal lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina M Chavez
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, United States
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | | | - Amanda B Hulfachor
- Laboratory of Genetics, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Wisconsin Energy Institute, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53726, United States
| | - Gideon Kpurubu
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, United States
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Rene Huerta
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, United States
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Chris Todd Hittinger
- Laboratory of Genetics, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Wisconsin Energy Institute, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53726, United States
| | - Antonis Rokas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, United States
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
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7
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Gasparotto M, Dall’Ara E, Vacca M, Filippini F. VAMP7j: A Splice Variant of Human VAMP7 That Modulates Neurite Outgrowth by Regulating L1CAM Transport to the Plasma Membrane. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:17326. [PMID: 38139155 PMCID: PMC10743575 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242417326] [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: 10/30/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The vesicle-associated membrane protein 7 (VAMP7) is a SNARE protein of the longin family involved in a wide range of subcellular trafficking events, including neurite sprouting and elongation. The expression of the human gene SYBL1, encoding VAMP7, is finely regulated by alternative splicing. Among the minor isoforms identified so far, VAMP7j is the one most expressed and modulated in the human brain. Therefore, we focused on gaining functional evidence on VAMP7j, which lacks a functional SNARE motif but retains both the longin and transmembrane domains. In human SH-SY5Y cells, we found VAMP7j to modulate neuritogenesis by mediating transport of L1CAM toward the plasma membrane, in a fashion regulated by phosphorylation of the longin domain. VAMP7-mediated regulation of L1CAM trafficking seems at least to differentiate humans from rats, with VAMP7j CNS expression being restricted to primates, including humans. Since L1CAM is a central player in neuritogenesis and axon guidance, these findings suggest the species-specific splicing of SYBL1 is among the fine tuners of human neurodevelopmental complexity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Gasparotto
- Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy; (M.G.); (E.D.)
| | - Elena Dall’Ara
- Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy; (M.G.); (E.D.)
| | - Marcella Vacca
- Institute of Genetics and Biophysics “A. Buzzati Traverso”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Pietro Castellino, 111, 80131 Naples, Italy
| | - Francesco Filippini
- Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy; (M.G.); (E.D.)
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Long H, Johri P, Gout JF, Ni J, Hao Y, Licknack T, Wang Y, Pan J, Jiménez-Marín B, Lynch M. Paramecium Genetics, Genomics, and Evolution. Annu Rev Genet 2023; 57:391-410. [PMID: 38012024 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genet-071819-104035] [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: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
The ciliate genus Paramecium served as one of the first model systems in microbial eukaryotic genetics, contributing much to the early understanding of phenomena as diverse as genome rearrangement, cryptic speciation, cytoplasmic inheritance, and endosymbiosis, as well as more recently to the evolution of mating types, introns, and roles of small RNAs in DNA processing. Substantial progress has recently been made in the area of comparative and population genomics. Paramecium species combine some of the lowest known mutation rates with some of the largest known effective populations, along with likely very high recombination rates, thereby harboring a population-genetic environment that promotes an exceptionally efficient capacity for selection. As a consequence, the genomes are extraordinarily streamlined, with very small intergenic regions combined with small numbers of tiny introns. The subject of the bulk of Paramecium research, the ancient Paramecium aurelia species complex, is descended from two whole-genome duplication events that retain high degrees of synteny, thereby providing an exceptional platform for studying the fates of duplicate genes. Despite having a common ancestor dating to several hundred million years ago, the known descendant species are morphologically indistinguishable, raising significant questions about the common view that gene duplications lead to the origins of evolutionary novelties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongan Long
- Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, KLMME, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China;
- Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
| | - Parul Johri
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Jean-Francois Gout
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, USA
| | - Jiahao Ni
- Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, KLMME, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China;
| | - Yue Hao
- Cancer and Cell Biology Division, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA;
| | - Timothy Licknack
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA;
| | - Yaohai Wang
- Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, KLMME, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China;
| | - Jiao Pan
- Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, KLMME, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China;
| | - Berenice Jiménez-Marín
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA;
| | - Michael Lynch
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA;
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9
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Helsen J, Sherlock G, Dey G. Experimental evolution for cell biology. Trends Cell Biol 2023; 33:903-912. [PMID: 37188561 PMCID: PMC10592577 DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2023.04.006] [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: 01/20/2023] [Revised: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Evolutionary cell biology explores the origins, principles, and core functions of cellular features and regulatory networks through the lens of evolution. This emerging field relies heavily on comparative experiments and genomic analyses that focus exclusively on extant diversity and historical events, providing limited opportunities for experimental validation. In this opinion article, we explore the potential for experimental laboratory evolution to augment the evolutionary cell biology toolbox, drawing inspiration from recent studies that combine laboratory evolution with cell biological assays. Primarily focusing on approaches for single cells, we provide a generalizable template for adapting experimental evolution protocols to provide fresh insight into long-standing questions in cell biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Helsen
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Cell Biology and Biophysics, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Gavin Sherlock
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Gautam Dey
- Cell Biology and Biophysics, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
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10
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van Hooff JJE. Towards unraveling the origins of eukaryotic nuclear genome organization. Trends Cell Biol 2023; 33:820-823. [PMID: 37558594 DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2023.07.008] [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] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Revised: 07/16/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023]
Abstract
With 3D genome mapping maturing over the past decade, studies exposed the differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic genome organization. This raises the question of how the complex eukaryotic genome organization originated. Here, I explore potential pathways to answering this question, guided by our changing understanding of the origins of eukaryotes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolien J E van Hooff
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 WE Wageningen, The Netherlands.
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11
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Velle KB, Garner RM, Beckford TK, Weeda M, Liu C, Kennard AS, Edwards M, Fritz-Laylin LK. A conserved pressure-driven mechanism for regulating cytosolic osmolarity. Curr Biol 2023; 33:3325-3337.e5. [PMID: 37478864 PMCID: PMC10529079 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.061] [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: 03/10/2023] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/23/2023]
Abstract
Controlling intracellular osmolarity is essential to all cellular life. Cells that live in hypo-osmotic environments, such as freshwater, must constantly battle water influx to avoid swelling until they burst. Many eukaryotic cells use contractile vacuoles to collect excess water from the cytosol and pump it out of the cell. Although contractile vacuoles are essential to many species, including important pathogens, the mechanisms that control their dynamics remain unclear. To identify the basic principles governing contractile vacuole function, we investigate here the molecular mechanisms of two species with distinct vacuolar morphologies from different eukaryotic lineages: the discoban Naegleria gruberi and the amoebozoan slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. Using quantitative cell biology, we find that although these species respond differently to osmotic challenges, they both use vacuolar-type proton pumps for filling contractile vacuoles and actin for osmoregulation, but not to power water expulsion. We also use analytical modeling to show that cytoplasmic pressure is sufficient to drive water out of contractile vacuoles in these species, similar to findings from the alveolate Paramecium multimicronucleatum. These analyses show that cytoplasmic pressure is sufficient to drive contractile vacuole emptying for a wide range of cellular pressures and vacuolar geometries. Because vacuolar-type proton-pump-dependent contractile vacuole filling and pressure-dependent emptying have now been validated in three eukaryotic lineages that diverged well over a billion years ago, we propose that this represents an ancient eukaryotic mechanism of osmoregulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrina B Velle
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Rikki M Garner
- Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Tatihana K Beckford
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Makaela Weeda
- Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA
| | - Chunzi Liu
- Department of Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Andrew S Kennard
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Marc Edwards
- Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA
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12
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O'Neill RS, Sodeinde AK, Welsh FC, Fagerstrom CJ, Galletta BJ, Rusan NM. Spd-2 gene duplication reveals cell-type-specific pericentriolar material regulation. Curr Biol 2023; 33:3031-3040.e6. [PMID: 37379844 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.020] [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: 02/07/2022] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/30/2023]
Abstract
Centrosomes are multi-protein organelles that function as microtubule (MT) organizing centers (MTOCs), ensuring spindle formation and chromosome segregation during cell division.1,2,3 Centrosome structure includes core centrioles that recruit pericentriolar material (PCM) that anchors γ-tubulin to nucleate MTs.1,2 In Drosophila melanogaster, PCM organization depends on proper regulation of proteins like Spd-2, which dynamically localizes to centrosomes and is required for PCM, γ-tubulin, and MTOC activity in brain neuroblast (NB) mitosis and male spermatocyte (SC) meiosis.4,5,6,7,8 Some cells have distinct requirements for MTOC activity due to differences in characteristics like cell size9,10 or whether they are mitotic or meiotic.11,12 How centrosome proteins achieve cell-type-specific functional differences is poorly understood. Previous work identified alternative splicing13 and binding partners14 as contributors to cell-type-specific differences in centrosome function. Gene duplication, which can generate paralogs with specialized functions,15,16 is also implicated in centrosome gene evolution,17 including cell-type-specific centrosome genes.18,19 To gain insight into cell-type-specific differences in centrosome protein function and regulation, we investigated a duplication of Spd-2 in Drosophila willistoni, which has Spd-2A (ancestral) and Spd-2B (derived). We find that Spd-2A functions in NB mitosis, whereas Spd-2B functions in SC meiosis. Ectopically expressed Spd-2B accumulates and functions in mitotic NBs, but ectopically expressed Spd-2A failed to accumulate in meiotic SCs, suggesting cell-type-specific differences in translation or protein stability. We mapped this failure to accumulate and function in meiosis to the C-terminal tail domain of Spd-2A, revealing a novel regulatory mechanism that can potentially achieve differences in PCM function across cell types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan S O'Neill
- Cell and Developmental Biology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Afeez K Sodeinde
- Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
| | - Frances C Welsh
- Basic Sciences Division and Computational Biology Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Carey J Fagerstrom
- Cell and Developmental Biology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Brian J Galletta
- Cell and Developmental Biology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Nasser M Rusan
- Cell and Developmental Biology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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13
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Miller KE, Cadart C, Heald R. Dodecaploid Xenopus longipes provides insight into the emergence of size scaling relationships during development. Curr Biol 2023; 33:1327-1336.e4. [PMID: 36889317 PMCID: PMC10115129 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.021] [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: 08/15/2022] [Revised: 01/12/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/09/2023]
Abstract
Genome and cell size are strongly correlated across species1,2,3,4,5,6 and influence physiological traits like developmental rate.7,8,9,10,11,12 Although size scaling features such as the nuclear-cytoplasmic (N/C) ratio are precisely maintained in adult tissues,13 it is unclear when during embryonic development size scaling relationships are established. Frogs of the genus Xenopus provide a model to investigate this question, since 29 extant Xenopus species vary in ploidy from 2 to 12 copies (N) of the ancestral frog genome, ranging from 20 to 108 chromosomes.14,15 The most widely studied species, X. laevis (4N = 36) and X. tropicalis (2N = 20), scale at all levels, from body size to cellular and subcellular levels.16 Paradoxically, the rare, critically endangered dodecaploid (12N = 108) Xenopus longipes (X. longipes) is a small frog.15,17 We observed that despite some morphological differences, X. longipes and X. laevis embryogenesis occurred with similar timing, with genome to cell size scaling emerging at the swimming tadpole stage. Across the three species, cell size was determined primarily by egg size, whereas nuclear size correlated with genome size during embryogenesis, resulting in different N/C ratios in blastulae prior to gastrulation. At the subcellular level, nuclear size correlated more strongly with genome size, whereas mitotic spindle size scaled with cell size. Our cross-species study indicates that scaling of cell size to ploidy is not due to abrupt changes in cell division timing, that different size scaling regimes occur during embryogenesis, and that the developmental program of Xenopus is remarkably consistent across a wide range of genome and egg sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly E Miller
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA
| | - Clotilde Cadart
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA
| | - Rebecca Heald
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA.
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14
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Singh RP, Poh YP, Sinha SD, Wideman JG. Evolutionary History of Oxysterol-Binding Proteins Reveals Complex History of Duplication and Loss in Animals and Fungi. Contact (Thousand Oaks) 2023; 6:25152564221150428. [PMID: 37366416 PMCID: PMC10243569 DOI: 10.1177/25152564221150428] [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] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Revised: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
Cells maintain the specific lipid composition of distinct organelles by vesicular transport as well as non-vesicular lipid trafficking via lipid transport proteins. Oxysterol-binding proteins (OSBPs) are a family of lipid transport proteins that transfer lipids at various membrane contact sites (MCSs). OSBPs have been extensively investigated in human and yeast cells where 12 have been identified in Homo sapiens and 7 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The evolutionary relationship between these well-characterized OSBPs is still unclear. By reconstructing phylogenies of eukaryote OSBPs, we show that the ancestral Saccharomycotina had four OSBPs, the ancestral fungus had five OSBPs, and the ancestral animal had six OSBPs, whereas the shared ancestor of animals and fungi as well as the ancestral eukaryote had only three OSBPs. Our analyses identified three undescribed ancient OSBP orthologues, one fungal OSBP (Osh8) lost in the lineage leading to yeast, one animal OSBP (ORP12) lost in the lineage leading to vertebrates, and one eukaryotic OSBP (OshEu) lost in both the animal and fungal lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rohan P. Singh
- Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Biodesign Institute,
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
| | - Yu-Ping Poh
- Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Biodesign Institute,
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
| | - Savar D. Sinha
- Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Biodesign Institute,
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
| | - Jeremy G. Wideman
- Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Biodesign Institute,
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
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15
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Phanprasert Y, Maciszewski K, Gentekaki E, Dacks JB. Comparative genomic analysis illustrates evolutionary dynamics of multisubunit tethering complexes across green algal diversity. J Eukaryot Microbiol 2023; 70:e12935. [PMID: 35790054 DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12935] [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: 05/17/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
The chlorophyte algae are a dominant group of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Although many are photoautotrophs, there are also mixotrophs, heterotrophs, and even parasites. The physical characteristics of green algae are also highly diverse, varying greatly in size, shape, and habitat. Given this morphological and trophic diversity, we postulated that diversity may also exist in the protein components controlling intracellular movement of material by vesicular transport. One such set is the multisubunit tethering complexes (MTCs)-components regulating cargo delivery. As they span endomembrane organelles and are well-conserved across eukaryotes, MTCs should be a good proxy for assessing the evolutionary dynamics across the diversity of Chlorophyta. Our results reveal that while green algae carry a generally conserved and unduplicated complement of MTCs, some intriguing variation exists. Notably, we identified incomplete sets of TRAPPII, exocyst, and HOPS/CORVET components in all Mamiellophyceae, and what is more, not a single subunit of Dsl1 was found in Cymbomonas tetramitiformis. As the absence of Dsl1 has been correlated with having unusual peroxisomes, we searched for peroxisome biogenesis machinery, finding very few components in Cymbomonas, suggestive of peroxisome degeneration. Overall, we demonstrate conservation of MTCs across green algae, but with notable taxon-specific losses suggestive of unusual endomembrane systems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kacper Maciszewski
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Eleni Gentekaki
- School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand.,Gut Microbiome Research Group, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand
| | - Joel B Dacks
- Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.,Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.,Institute of Evolutionary Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
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16
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Lynch M, Schavemaker PE, Licknack TJ, Hao Y, Pezzano A. Evolutionary bioenergetics of ciliates. J Eukaryot Microbiol 2022; 69:e12934. [PMID: 35778890 DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12934] [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: 02/14/2022] [Revised: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Understanding why various organisms evolve alternative ways of living requires information on both the fitness advantages of phenotypic modifications and the costs of constructing and operating cellular features. Although the former has been the subject of a myriad of ecological studies, almost no attention has been given to how organisms allocate resources to alternative structures and functions. We address these matters by capitalizing on an array of observations on diverse ciliate species and from the emerging field of evolutionary bioenergetics. A relatively robust and general estimator for the total cost of a cell per cell cycle (in units of ATP equivalents) is provided, and this is then used to understand how the magnitudes of various investments scale with cell size. Among other things, we examine the costs associated with the large macronuclear genomes of ciliates, as well as ribosomes, various internal membranes, osmoregulation, cilia, and swimming activities. Although a number of uncertainties remain, the general approach taken may serve as blueprint for expanding this line of work to additional traits and phylogenetic lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Lynch
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
| | - Paul E Schavemaker
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
| | - Timothy J Licknack
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
| | - Yue Hao
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
| | - Arianna Pezzano
- Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
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17
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Toret C, Picco A, Boiero-Sanders M, Michelot A, Kaksonen M. The cellular slime mold Fonticula alba forms a dynamic, multicellular collective while feeding on bacteria. Curr Biol 2022; 32:1961-1973.e4. [PMID: 35349792 PMCID: PMC9097593 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [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] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Revised: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Multicellularity evolved in fungi and animals, or the opisthokonts, from their common amoeboflagellate ancestor but resulted in strikingly distinct cellular organizations. The origins of this multicellularity divergence are not known. The stark mechanistic differences that underlie the two groups and the lack of information about ancestral cellular organizations limits progress in this field. We discovered a new type of invasive multicellular behavior in Fonticula alba, a unique species in the opisthokont tree, which has a simple, bacteria-feeding sorocarpic amoeba lifestyle. This invasive multicellularity follows germination dependent on the bacterial culture state, after which amoebae coalesce to form dynamic collectives that invade virgin bacterial resources. This bacteria-dependent social behavior emerges from amoeba density and allows for rapid and directed invasion. The motile collectives have animal-like properties but also hyphal-like search and invasive behavior. These surprising findings enrich the diverse multicellularities present within the opisthokont lineage and offer a new perspective on fungal origins. Unexpected bacterial-state-dependent culture conditions for Fonticula alba A multicellular invasion of bacterial food resources that is distinct from fruiting A leader-led invasive collectivity that is an emergent property Insights into the origins of invasive hyphal and fruiting multicellularity in dikarya
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Toret
- Department of Biochemistry and National Centre of Competence in Research, Chemical Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Andrea Picco
- Department of Biochemistry and National Centre of Competence in Research, Chemical Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Micaela Boiero-Sanders
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IBDM, Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseille, France
| | - Alphee Michelot
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IBDM, Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseille, France
| | - Marko Kaksonen
- Department of Biochemistry and National Centre of Competence in Research, Chemical Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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18
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten Bomblies
- Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, ETH ZürichSwitzerland
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19
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Pritišanac I, Zarin T, Forman-Kay JD, Moses AM. Whence Blobs? Phylogenetics of functional protein condensates. Biochem Soc Trans 2020; 48:2151-8. [PMID: 32985656 DOI: 10.1042/BST20200355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Revised: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
What do we know about the molecular evolution of functional protein condensation? The capacity of proteins to form biomolecular condensates (compact, protein-rich states, not bound by membranes, but still separated from the rest of the contents of the cell) appears in many cases to be bestowed by weak, transient interactions within one or between proteins. Natural selection is expected to remove or fix amino acid changes, insertions or deletions that preserve and change this condensation capacity when doing so is beneficial to the cell. A few recent studies have begun to explore this frontier of phylogenetics at the intersection of biophysics and cell biology.
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20
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Purkayastha P, Pendyala K, Saxena AS, Hakimjavadi H, Chamala S, Dixit P, Baer CF, Lele TP. Reverse Plasticity Underlies Rapid Evolution by Clonal Selection within Populations of Fibroblasts Propagated on a Novel Soft Substrate. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:3279-3293. [PMID: 33871606 PMCID: PMC8321517 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab102] [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] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mechanical properties such as substrate stiffness are a ubiquitous feature of a cell’s environment. Many types of animal cells exhibit canonical phenotypic plasticity when grown on substrates of differing stiffness, in vitro and in vivo. Whether such plasticity is a multivariate optimum due to hundreds of millions of years of animal evolution, or instead is a compromise between conflicting selective demands, is unknown. We addressed these questions by means of experimental evolution of populations of mouse fibroblasts propagated for approximately 90 cell generations on soft or stiff substrates. The ancestral cells grow twice as fast on stiff substrate as on soft substrate and exhibit the canonical phenotypic plasticity. Soft-selected lines derived from a genetically diverse ancestral population increased growth rate on soft substrate to the ancestral level on stiff substrate and evolved the same multivariate phenotype. The pattern of plasticity in the soft-selected lines was opposite of the ancestral pattern, suggesting that reverse plasticity underlies the observed rapid evolution. Conversely, growth rate and phenotypes did not change in selected lines derived from clonal cells. Overall, our results suggest that the changes were the result of genetic evolution and not phenotypic plasticity per se. Whole-transcriptome analysis revealed consistent differentiation between ancestral and soft-selected populations, and that both emergent phenotypes and gene expression tended to revert in the soft-selected lines. However, the selected populations appear to have achieved the same phenotypic outcome by means of at least two distinct transcriptional architectures related to mechanotransduction and proliferation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Purboja Purkayastha
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Kavya Pendyala
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Ayush S Saxena
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | | | - Srikar Chamala
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Purushottam Dixit
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Charles F Baer
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,University of Florida Genetics Institute, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Tanmay P Lele
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.,Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, USA
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21
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Lynch M, Trickovic B. A Theoretical Framework for Evolutionary Cell Biology. J Mol Biol 2020; 432:1861-79. [PMID: 32087200 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.02.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
One of the last uncharted territories in evolutionary biology concerns the link with cell biology. Because all phenotypes ultimately derive from events at the cellular level, this connection is essential to building a mechanism-based theory of evolution. Given the impressive developments in cell biological methodologies at the structural and functional levels, the potential for rapid progress is great. The primary challenge for theory development is the establishment of a quantitative framework that transcends species boundaries. Two approaches to the problem are presented here: establishing the long-term steady-state distribution of mean phenotypes under specific regimes of mutation, selection, and drift and evaluating the energetic costs of cellular structures and functions. Although not meant to be the final word, these theoretical platforms harbor potential for generating insight into a diversity of unsolved problems, ranging from genome structure to cellular architecture to aspects of motility in organisms across the Tree of Life.
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22
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Miller SR, Longley R, Hutchins PR, Bauersachs T. Cellular Innovation of the Cyanobacterial Heterocyst by the Adaptive Loss of Plasticity. Curr Biol 2020; 30:344-350.e4. [PMID: 31928871 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2019] [Revised: 11/12/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Cellular innovation is central to biological diversification, yet its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood [1]. One potential source of new cellular traits is environmentally induced phenotypic variation, or phenotypic plasticity. The plasticity-first hypothesis [2-4] proposes that natural selection can improve upon an ancestrally plastic phenotype to produce a locally adaptive trait, but the role of plasticity for adaptive evolution is still unclear [5-10]. Here, we show that a structurally novel form of the heterocyst, the specialized nitrogen-fixing cell of the multicellular cyanobacterium Fischerella thermalis, has evolved multiple times from ancestrally plastic developmental variation during adaptation to high temperature. Heterocyst glycolipids (HGs) provide an extracellular gas diffusion barrier that protects oxygen-sensitive nitrogenase [11, 12], and cyanobacteria typically exhibit temperature-induced plasticity in HG composition that modulates heterocyst permeability [13, 14]. By contrast, high-temperature specialists of F. thermalis constitutively overproduce glycolipid isomers associated with high temperature to levels unattained by plastic strains. This results in a less-permeable heterocyst, which is advantageous at high temperature but deleterious at low temperature for both nitrogen fixation activity and fitness. Our study illustrates how the origin of a novel cellular phenotype by the genetic assimilation and adaptive refinement of a plastic trait can be a source of biological diversity and contribute to ecological specialization.
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23
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Abstract
The ability to profile hundreds of thousands to millions of single cells using scRNA-sequencing has revolutionized the fields of cell and developmental biology, providing incredible insights into the diversity of forms and functions of cell types across many species. These technologies hold the promise of developing detailed cell type phylogenies which can describe the evolutionary and developmental relationships between cell types across species. This will require sampling of many species and taxa using single-cell transcriptomics, and methods to classify cell type homologies and diversifications. Many tools currently exist for analyzing single cell data and identifying cell types. However, cross-species comparisons are complicated by many biological and technical factors. These factors include batch effects common to deep-sequencing approaches, well known evolutionary relationships between orthologous and paralogous genes, and less well-understood evolutionary forces shaping transcriptome variation between species. In this review, I discuss recent developments in computational methods for the comparison of single-cell-omic data across species. These approaches have the potential to provide invaluable insight into how evolutionary forces act at the level of the cell and will further our understanding of the evolutionary origins of animal and cellular diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell E. R. Shafer
- Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
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24
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Barlow LD, Nývltová E, Aguilar M, Tachezy J, Dacks JB. A sophisticated, differentiated Golgi in the ancestor of eukaryotes. BMC Biol 2018; 16:27. [PMID: 29510703 PMCID: PMC5840792 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-018-0492-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [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: 10/31/2017] [Accepted: 01/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The Golgi apparatus is a central meeting point for the endocytic and exocytic systems in eukaryotic cells, and the organelle's dysfunction results in human disease. Its characteristic morphology of multiple differentiated compartments organized into stacked flattened cisternae is one of the most recognizable features of modern eukaryotic cells, and yet how this is maintained is not well understood. The Golgi is also an ancient aspect of eukaryotes, but the extent and nature of its complexity in the ancestor of eukaryotes is unclear. Various proteins have roles in organizing the Golgi, chief among them being the golgins. RESULTS We address Golgi evolution by analyzing genome sequences from organisms which have lost stacked cisternae as a feature of their Golgi and those that have not. Using genomics and immunomicroscopy, we first identify Golgi in the anaerobic amoeba Mastigamoeba balamuthi. We then searched 87 genomes spanning eukaryotic diversity for presence of the most prominent proteins implicated in Golgi structure, focusing on golgins. We show some candidates as animal specific and others as ancestral to eukaryotes. CONCLUSIONS None of the proteins examined show a phyletic distribution that correlates with the morphology of stacked cisternae, suggesting the possibility of stacking as an emergent property. Strikingly, however, the combination of golgins conserved among diverse eukaryotes allows for the most detailed reconstruction of the organelle to date, showing a sophisticated Golgi with differentiated compartments and trafficking pathways in the common eukaryotic ancestor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lael D Barlow
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, 5-31 Medical Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Eva Nývltová
- Department of Parasitology (BIOCEV), Faculty of Science, Charles University, Průmyslová 595, 252 42, Vestec, Czech Republic.,Department of Neurology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, 1600 NW 10th Avenue, Rosenstiel Medical Science Building (RMSB) # 2067, Miami, Florida, 33136, USA
| | - Maria Aguilar
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, 5-31 Medical Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Jan Tachezy
- Department of Parasitology (BIOCEV), Faculty of Science, Charles University, Průmyslová 595, 252 42, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Joel B Dacks
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, 5-31 Medical Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H7, Canada. .,Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
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25
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Abstract
Over 600 million years ago, animals evolved from a unicellular or colonial organism whose cell(s) captured bacteria with a collar complex, a flagellum surrounded by a microvillar collar. Using principles from evolutionary cell biology, we reason that the transition to multicellularity required modification of pre-existing mechanisms for extracellular matrix synthesis and cytokinesis. We discuss two hypotheses for the origin of animal cell types: division of labor from ancient plurifunctional cells and conversion of temporally alternating phenotypes into spatially juxtaposed cell types. Mechanistic studies in diverse animals and their relatives promise to deepen our understanding of animal origins and cell biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thibaut Brunet
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Nicole King
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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26
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Krtková J, Xu J, Lalle M, Steele-Ogus M, Alas GCM, Sept D, Paredez AR. 14-3-3 Regulates Actin Filament Formation in the Deep-Branching Eukaryote Giardia lamblia. mSphere 2017; 2:e00248-17. [PMID: 28932813 DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00248-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2017] [Accepted: 08/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The phosphoserine/phosphothreonine-binding protein 14-3-3 is known to regulate actin; this function has been previously attributed to sequestration of phosphorylated cofilin. 14-3-3 was identified as an actin-associated protein in the deep-branching eukaryote Giardia lamblia; however, Giardia lacks cofilin and all other canonical actin-binding proteins (ABPs). Thus, the role of G. lamblia 14-3-3 (Gl-14-3-3) in actin regulation was unknown. Gl-14-3-3 depletion resulted in an overall disruption of actin organization characterized by ectopically distributed short actin filaments. Using phosphatase and kinase inhibitors, we demonstrated that actin phosphorylation correlated with destabilization of the actin network and increased complex formation with 14-3-3, while blocking actin phosphorylation stabilized actin filaments and attenuated complex formation. Giardia's sole Rho family GTPase, Gl-Rac, modulates Gl-14-3-3's association with actin, providing the first connection between Gl-Rac and the actin cytoskeleton in Giardia. Giardia actin (Gl-actin) contains two putative 14-3-3 binding motifs, one of which (S330) is conserved in mammalian actin. Mutation of these sites reduced, but did not completely disrupt, the association with 14-3-3. Native gels and overlay assays indicate that intermediate proteins are required to support complex formation between 14-3-3 and actin. Overall, our results support a role for 14-3-3 as a regulator of actin; however, the presence of multiple 14-3-3-actin complexes suggests a more complex regulatory relationship than might be expected for a minimalistic parasite. IMPORTANCEGiardia lacks canonical actin-binding proteins. Gl-14-3-3 was identified as an actin interactor, but the significance of this interaction was unknown. Loss of Gl-14-3-3 results in ectopic short actin filaments, indicating that Gl-14-3-3 is an important regulator of the actin cytoskeleton in Giardia. Drug studies indicate that Gl-14-3-3 complex formation is in part phospho-regulated. We demonstrate that complex formation is downstream of Giardia's sole Rho family GTPase, Gl-Rac. This result provides the first mechanistic connection between Gl-Rac and Gl-actin in Giardia. Native gels and overlay assays indicate intermediate proteins are required to support the interaction between Gl-14-3-3 and Gl-actin, suggesting that Gl-14-3-3 is regulating multiple Gl-actin complexes.
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27
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Affiliation(s)
- Lillian K Fritz-Laylin
- a Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute , University of California , San Francisco, San Francisco, CA , USA.,b Department of Biology , University of Massachusetts , Amherst MA , USA
| | - Samuel J Lord
- a Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute , University of California , San Francisco, San Francisco, CA , USA
| | - R Dyche Mullins
- a Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute , University of California , San Francisco, San Francisco, CA , USA
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28
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Abstract
During eukaryotic cell division, the sister chromatids of duplicated chromosomes are pulled apart by microtubules, which connect via kinetochores. The kinetochore is a multiprotein structure that links centromeres to microtubules, and that emits molecular signals in order to safeguard the equal distribution of duplicated chromosomes over daughter cells. Although microtubule‐mediated chromosome segregation is evolutionary conserved, kinetochore compositions seem to have diverged. To systematically inventory kinetochore diversity and to reconstruct its evolution, we determined orthologs of 70 kinetochore proteins in 90 phylogenetically diverse eukaryotes. The resulting ortholog sets imply that the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) possessed a complex kinetochore and highlight that current‐day kinetochores differ substantially. These kinetochores diverged through gene loss, duplication, and, less frequently, invention and displacement. Various kinetochore components co‐evolved with one another, albeit in different manners. These co‐evolutionary patterns improve our understanding of kinetochore function and evolution, which we illustrated with the RZZ complex, TRIP13, the MCC, and some nuclear pore proteins. The extensive diversity of kinetochore compositions in eukaryotes poses numerous questions regarding evolutionary flexibility of essential cellular functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolien Je van Hooff
- Hubrecht Institute - KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Molecular Cancer Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Eelco Tromer
- Hubrecht Institute - KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Leny M van Wijk
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Berend Snel
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Geert Jpl Kops
- Hubrecht Institute - KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), Utrecht, The Netherlands .,Molecular Cancer Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Cancer Genomics Netherlands, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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29
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Harsman A, Schneider A. Mitochondrial protein import in trypanosomes: Expect the unexpected. Traffic 2017; 18:96-109. [PMID: 27976830 DOI: 10.1111/tra.12463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [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: 10/10/2016] [Revised: 12/01/2016] [Accepted: 12/06/2016] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Mitochondria have many different functions, the most important one of which is oxidative phosphorylation. They originated from an endosymbiotic event between a bacterium and an archaeal host cell. It was the evolution of a protein import system that marked the boundary between the endosymbiotic ancestor of the mitochondrion and a true organelle that is under the control of the nucleus. In present day mitochondria more than 95% of all proteins are imported from the cytosol in a proces mediated by hetero-oligomeric protein complexes in the outer and inner mitochondrial membranes. In this review we compare mitochondrial protein import in the best studied model system yeast and the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma brucei. The 2 organisms are phylogenetically only remotely related. Despite the fact that mitochondrial protein import has the same function in both species, only very few subunits of their import machineries are conserved. Moreover, while yeast has 2 inner membrane protein translocases, one specialized for presequence-containing and one for mitochondrial carrier proteins, T. brucei has a single inner membrane translocase only, that mediates import of both types of substrates. The evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anke Harsman
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - André Schneider
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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30
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Abstract
Organelles with their own distinct genomes, such as plastids and mitochondria, are found in most eukaryotic cells. As these organelles and their host cells have evolved, the partitioning of metabolic processes and the encoding of interacting gene products have created an obligate codependence. This relationship has played a role in shaping the number of organelles in cells through evolution. Factors such as stochastic evolutionary forces acting on genes involved in organelle biogenesis, organelle-nuclear gene interactions, and physical limitations may, to varying degrees, dictate the selective constraint that per-cell organelle number is under. In particular, coordination between nuclear and organellar gene expression may be important in maintaining gene product stoichiometry, which may have a significant role in constraining the evolution of this trait.
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Affiliation(s)
- Logan W Cole
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
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31
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Kontur C, Kumar S, Lan X, Pritchard JK, Turkewitz AP. Whole Genome Sequencing Identifies a Novel Factor Required for Secretory Granule Maturation in Tetrahymena thermophila. G3 (Bethesda) 2016; 6:2505-16. [PMID: 27317773 DOI: 10.1534/g3.116.028878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Unbiased genetic approaches have a unique ability to identify novel genes associated with specific biological pathways. Thanks to next generation sequencing, forward genetic strategies can be expanded to a wider range of model organisms. The formation of secretory granules, called mucocysts, in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila relies, in part, on ancestral lysosomal sorting machinery, but is also likely to involve novel factors. In prior work, multiple strains with defects in mucocyst biogenesis were generated by nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis, and characterized using genetic and cell biological approaches, but the genetic lesions themselves were unknown. Here, we show that analyzing one such mutant by whole genome sequencing reveals a novel factor in mucocyst formation. Strain UC620 has both morphological and biochemical defects in mucocyst maturation-a process analogous to dense core granule maturation in animals. Illumina sequencing of a pool of UC620 F2 clones identified a missense mutation in a novel gene called MMA1 (Mucocyst maturation). The defects in UC620 were rescued by expression of a wild-type copy of MMA1, and disrupting MMA1 in an otherwise wild-type strain phenocopies UC620. The product of MMA1, characterized as a CFP-tagged copy, encodes a large soluble cytosolic protein. A small fraction of Mma1p-CFP is pelletable, which may reflect association with endosomes. The gene has no identifiable homologs except in other Tetrahymena species, and therefore represents an evolutionarily recent innovation that is required for granule maturation.
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32
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Anderson DP, Whitney DS, Hanson-Smith V, Woznica A, Campodonico-Burnett W, Volkman BF, King N, Thornton JW, Prehoda KE. Evolution of an ancient protein function involved in organized multicellularity in animals. eLife 2016; 5:e10147. [PMID: 26740169 PMCID: PMC4718807 DOI: 10.7554/elife.10147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [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: 07/23/2015] [Accepted: 11/09/2015] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
To form and maintain organized tissues, multicellular organisms orient their mitotic spindles relative to neighboring cells. A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues. Here we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism. The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which - the evolution of GKPID's capacity to bind the cortical marker protein - can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID. This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function. We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas P Anderson
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States.,Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States.,Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
| | - Dustin S Whitney
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
| | - Victor Hanson-Smith
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
| | - Arielle Woznica
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
| | - William Campodonico-Burnett
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States.,Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
| | - Brian F Volkman
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
| | - Nicole King
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
| | | | - Kenneth E Prehoda
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States.,Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
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33
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Muñoz-Gómez SA, Slamovits CH, Dacks JB, Wideman JG. The evolution of MICOS: Ancestral and derived functions and interactions. Commun Integr Biol 2015; 8:e1094593. [PMID: 27065250 PMCID: PMC4802753 DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2015.1094593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [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: 08/19/2015] [Revised: 09/06/2015] [Accepted: 09/08/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The MItochondrial Contact Site and Cristae Organizing System (MICOS) is required for the biogenesis and maintenance of mitochondrial cristae as well as the proper tethering of the mitochondrial inner and outer membranes. We recently demonstrated that the core components of MICOS, Mic10 and Mic60, are near-ubiquitous eukaryotic features inferred to have been present in the last eukaryote common ancestor. We also showed that Mic60 could be traced to α-proteobacteria, which suggests that mitochondrial cristae evolved from α-proteobacterial intracytoplasmic membranes. Here, we extend our evolutionary analysis to MICOS-interacting proteins (e.g., Sam50, Mia40, DNAJC11, DISC-1, QIL1, Aim24, and Cox17) and discuss the implications for both derived and ancestral functions of MICOS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio A Muñoz-Gómez
- Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Dalhousie University ; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Claudio H Slamovits
- Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Dalhousie University; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Joel B Dacks
- Department of Cell Biology; Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; University of Alberta ; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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34
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Abstract
How Darwin's "endless forms most beautiful" have evolved remains one of the most exciting questions in biology. The significant variety of bacterial shapes is most likely due to the specific advantages they confer with respect to the diverse environments they occupy. While our understanding of the mechanisms generating relatively simple shapes has improved tremendously in the last few years, the molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of complex shapes and the evolution of shape diversity are largely unknown. The emerging field of bacterial evolutionary cell biology provides a novel strategy to answer this question in a comparative phylogenetic framework. This relatively novel approach provides hypotheses and insights into cell biological mechanisms, such as morphogenesis, and their evolution that would have been difficult to obtain by studying only model organisms. We discuss the necessary steps, challenges, and impact of integrating "evolutionary thinking" into bacterial cell biology in the genomic era.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chao Jiang
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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35
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Lynch M, Field MC, Goodson HV, Malik HS, Pereira-Leal JB, Roos DS, Turkewitz AP, Sazer S. Evolutionary cell biology: two origins, one objective. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:16990-4. [PMID: 25404324 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1415861111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
All aspects of biological diversification ultimately trace to evolutionary modifications at the cellular level. This central role of cells frames the basic questions as to how cells work and how cells come to be the way they are. Although these two lines of inquiry lie respectively within the traditional provenance of cell biology and evolutionary biology, a comprehensive synthesis of evolutionary and cell-biological thinking is lacking. We define evolutionary cell biology as the fusion of these two eponymous fields with the theoretical and quantitative branches of biochemistry, biophysics, and population genetics. The key goals are to develop a mechanistic understanding of general evolutionary processes, while specifically infusing cell biology with an evolutionary perspective. The full development of this interdisciplinary field has the potential to solve numerous problems in diverse areas of biology, including the degree to which selection, effectively neutral processes, historical contingencies, and/or constraints at the chemical and biophysical levels dictate patterns of variation for intracellular features. These problems can now be examined at both the within- and among-species levels, with single-cell methodologies even allowing quantification of variation within genotypes. Some results from this emerging field have already had a substantial impact on cell biology, and future findings will significantly influence applications in agriculture, medicine, environmental science, and synthetic biology.
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36
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Barlow LD, Dacks JB, Wideman JG. From all to (nearly) none: Tracing adaptin evolution in Fungi. Cell Logist 2014; 4:e28114. [PMID: 24843829 PMCID: PMC4022609 DOI: 10.4161/cl.28114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [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] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2013] [Revised: 02/03/2014] [Accepted: 02/04/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The five adaptor protein (AP) complexes function in cargo-selection and coat-recruitment stages of vesicular transport in eukaryotic cells. Much of what we know about AP complex function has come from experimental work using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model. Here, using a combination of comparative genomic and phylogenetic approaches we provide evolutionary context for the knowledge gained from this model system by searching the genomes of diverse fungi as well as a member of the sister group to all fungi, Fonticula alba, for presence of AP subunits. First, we demonstrate that F. alba contains all five AP complexes; whereas, similar to S. cerevisiae, most fungi retain only AP-1 to 3. As exceptions, the glomeromycete Rhizophagus irregularis maintains a complete AP-4 and chytrid fungi Spizellomyces punctatus and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis retain partial AP-4 complexes. The presence of AP-4 subunits in diverse fungi suggests that AP-4 has been independently lost up to seven times in the fungal lineage. In addition to the trend of loss in fungi, we demonstrate that the duplication that gave rise to the β subunits of the AP-1 and AP-2 complexes in S. cerevisiae occurred before the divergence of F. alba and Fungi. Finally, our investigation into the AP complement of basal fungi (Microsporidia and Cryptomycota) demonstrates that while the cryptomycete Rozella allomyces contains an adaptin complement similar to other fungi, the extremely reduced Microsporidia retain, at most, a single cryptic AP complex in the absence of clathrin or any other putative AP-associated coat protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lael D Barlow
- Department of Cell Biology; Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Joel B Dacks
- Department of Cell Biology; Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Jeremy G Wideman
- Department of Cell Biology; Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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37
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Dores RM. Observations on the evolution of the melanocortin receptor gene family: distinctive features of the melanocortin-2 receptor. Front Neurosci 2013; 7:28. [PMID: 23596380 PMCID: PMC3622036 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [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: 01/01/2013] [Accepted: 02/19/2013] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The melanocortin receptors (MCRs) are a gene family in the rhodopsin class of G protein-coupled receptors. Based on the analysis of several metazoan genome databases it appears that the MCRs are only found in chordates. The presence of five genes in the family (i.e., mc1r, mc2r, mc3r, mc4r, mc5r) in representatives of the tetrapods indicates that the gene family is the result of two genome duplication events and one local gene duplication event during the evolution of the chordates. The MCRs are activated by melanocortin ligands (i.e., ACTH, α-MSH, β-MSH, γ-MSH, δ-MSH) which are all derived from the polypeptide hormone/neuropeptide precursor, POMC, and as a result the functional evolution of the MCRs is intimately associated with the co-evolution of POMC endocrine and neuronal circuits. This review will consider the origin of the MCRs, and discuss the evolutionary relationship between MC2R, MC5R, and MC4R. In addition, this review will analyze the functional evolution of the mc2r gene in light of the co-evolution of the MRAP (Melanocortin-2 Receptor Accessory Protein) gene family.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert M Dores
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver Denver, CO, USA
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38
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Abstract
Evolutionary theory predicts that once an individual reaches an age of sufficiently low Darwinian fitness, (s)he will have reduced chances of keeping cancerous lesions in check. While we clearly need to better understand the emergence of precursor states and early malignancies as well as their mitigation by the microenvironment and tissue architecture, we argue that lifestyle changes and preventive therapies based in an evolutionary framework, applied to identified high-risk populations before incipient neoplasms become clinically detectable and chemoresistant lineages emerge, are currently the most reliable way to control or eliminate early tumours. Specifically, the relatively low levels of (epi)genetic heterogeneity characteristic of many if not most incipient lesions will mean a relatively limited set of possible adaptive traits and associated costs compared to more advanced cancers, and thus a more complete and predictable understanding of treatment options and outcomes. We propose a conceptual model for preventive treatments and discuss the many associated challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael E Hochberg
- ISEM, UMR5554 CNRS/UM2/IRD, Université Montpellier 2 Montpellier, France ; The Santa Fe Institute Santa Fe, NM, USA ; CREEC, Université Montpellier 2 Montpellier, France
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