Alexandra Stechmann

Phylogenomic Evidence for Separate Acquisition of Plastids in Cryptophytes, Haptophytes, and Stramenopiles

According to the chromalveolate hypothesis (Cavalier-Smith T. 1999. Principles of protein and lipid targeting in secondary symbiogenesis: euglenoid, dinoflagellate, and sporozoan plastid origins and the eukaryote family tree. J Eukaryot Microbiol 46:347-366), the four eukaryotic groups with chlorophyll c-containing plastids originate from a single photosynthetic ancestor, which acquired its plastids by secondary endosymbiosis with a red alga. So far, molecular phylogenies have failed to either support or disprove this view. Here, we devise a phylogenomic falsification of the chromalveolate hypothesis that estimates signal strength across the three genomic compartments: If the four chlorophyll c-containing lineages indeed derive from a single photosynthetic ancestor, then similar amounts of plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear sequences should allow to recover their monophyly. Our results refute this prediction, with statistical support levels too different to be explained by evolutionary rate variation, phylogenetic artifacts, or endosymbiotic gene transfer. Therefore, we reject the chromalveolate hypothesis as falsified in favor of more complex evolutionary scenarios involving multiple higher order eukaryote-eukaryote endosymbioses.

Organelles in Blastocystis that Blur the Distinction between Mitochondria and Hydrogenosomes

Summary Blastocystis is a unicellular stramenopile of controversial pathogenicity in humans [1, 2]. Although it is a strict anaerobe, Blastocystis has mitochondrion-like organelles with cristae, a transmembrane potential and DNA [2–4]. An apparent lack of several typical mitochondrial pathways has led some to suggest that these organelles might be hydrogenosomes, anaerobic organelles related to mitochondria [5, 6]. We generated 12,767 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from Blastocystis and identified 115 clusters that encode putative mitochondrial and hydrogenosomal proteins. Among these is the canonical hydrogenosomal protein iron-only [FeFe] hydrogenase that we show localizes to the organelles. The organelles also have mitochondrial characteristics, including pathways for amino acid metabolism, iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis, and an incomplete tricarboxylic acid cycle as well as a mitochondrial genome. Although complexes I and II of the electron transport chain (ETC) are present, we found no evidence for complexes III and IV or F1Fo ATPases. The Blastocystis organelles have metabolic properties of aerobic and anaerobic mitochondria and of hydrogenosomes [7, 8]. They are convergently similar to organelles recently described in the unrelated ciliate Nyctotherus ovalis[9]. These findings blur the boundaries between mitochondria, hydrogenosomes, and mitosomes, as currently defined, underscoring the disparate selective forces that shape these organelles in eukaryotes.

Phylogenetic Distributions and Histories of Proteins Involved in Anaerobic Pyruvate Metabolism in Eukaryotes

Protists that live in low oxygen conditions often oxidize pyruvate to acetate via anaerobic ATP-generating pathways. Key enzymes that commonly occur in these pathways are pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFO) and [FeFe]-hydrogenase (H(2)ase) as well as the associated [FeFe]-H(2)ase maturase proteins HydE, HydF, and HydG. Determining the origins of these proteins in eukaryotes is of key importance to understanding the origins of anaerobic energy metabolism in microbial eukaryotes. We conducted a comprehensive search for genes encoding these proteins in available whole genomes and expressed sequence tag data from diverse eukaryotes. Our analyses of the presence/absence of eukaryotic PFO, [FeFe]-H(2)ase, and H(2)ase maturase sequences across eukaryotic diversity reveal orthologs of these proteins encoded in the genomes of a variety of protists previously not known to contain them. Our phylogenetic analyses revealed: 1) extensive lateral gene transfers of both PFO and [FeFe]-H(2)ase in eubacteria, 2) decreased support for the monophyly of eukaryote PFO domains, and 3) that eukaryotic [FeFe]-H(2)ases are not monophyletic. Although there are few eukaryote [FeFe]-H(2)ase maturase orthologs characterized, phylogenies of these proteins do recover eukaryote monophyly, although a consistent eubacterial sister group for eukaryotic homologs could not be determined. An exhaustive search for these five genes in diverse genomes from two representative eubacterial groups, the Clostridiales and the alpha-proteobacteria, shows that although these enzymes are nearly universally present within the former group, they are very rare in the latter. No alpha-proteobacterial genome sequenced to date encodes all five proteins. Molecular phylogenies and the extremely restricted distribution of PFO, [FeFe]-H(2)ases, and their associated maturases within the alpha-proteobacteria do not support a mitochondrial origin for these enzymes in eukaryotes. However, the unexpected prevalence of PFO, pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase, [FeFe]-H(2)ase, and the maturase proteins encoded in genomes of diverse eukaryotes indicates that these enzymes have an important role in the evolution of microbial eukaryote energy metabolism.

Evolution of Fe/S cluster biogenesis in the anaerobic parasite Blastocystis

Iron/sulfur cluster (ISC)-containing proteins are essential components of cells. In most eukaryotes, Fe/S clusters are synthesized by the mitochondrial ISC machinery, the cytosolic iron/sulfur assembly system, and, in photosynthetic species, a plastid sulfur-mobilization (SUF) system. Here we show that the anaerobic human protozoan parasite Blastocystis, in addition to possessing ISC and iron/sulfur assembly systems, expresses a fused version of the SufC and SufB proteins of prokaryotes that it has acquired by lateral transfer from an archaeon related to the Methanomicrobiales, an important lineage represented in the human gastrointestinal tract microbiome. Although components of the Blastocystis ISC system function within its anaerobic mitochondrion-related organelles and can functionally replace homologues in Trypanosoma brucei, its SufCB protein has similar biochemical properties to its prokaryotic homologues, functions within the parasite’s cytosol, and is up-regulated under oxygen stress. Blastocystis is unique among eukaryotic pathogens in having adapted to its parasitic lifestyle by acquiring a SUF system from nonpathogenic Archaea to synthesize Fe/S clusters under oxygen stress.

Genetic evidence for a mitochondriate ancestry in the 'amitochondriate' flagellate Trimastix pyriformis.

Most modern eukaryotes diverged from a common ancestor that contained the α-proteobacterial endosymbiont that gave rise to mitochondria. The ‘amitochondriate’ anaerobic protist parasites that have been studied to date, such as Giardia and Trichomonas harbor mitochondrion-related organelles, such as mitosomes or hydrogenosomes. Yet there is one remaining group of mitochondrion-lacking flagellates known as the Preaxostyla that could represent a primitive ‘pre-mitochondrial’ lineage of eukaryotes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an expressed sequence tag (EST) survey on the preaxostylid flagellate Trimastix pyriformis, a poorly-studied free-living anaerobe. Among the ESTs we detected 19 proteins that, in other eukaryotes, typically function in mitochondria, hydrogenosomes or mitosomes, 12 of which are found exclusively within these organelles. Interestingly, one of the proteins, aconitase, functions in the tricarboxylic acid cycle typical of aerobic mitochondria, whereas others, such as pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase and [FeFe] hydrogenase, are characteristic of anaerobic hydrogenosomes. Since Trimastix retains genetic evidence of a mitochondriate ancestry, we can now say definitively that all known living eukaryote lineages descend from a common ancestor that had mitochondria.

Localization and nucleotide specificity of Blastocystis succinyl-CoA synthetase.

The anaerobic lifestyle of the intestinal parasite Blastocystis raises questions about the biochemistry and function of its mitochondria‐like organelles. We have characterized the Blastocystis succinyl‐CoA synthetase (SCS), a tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme that conserves energy by substrate‐level phosphorylation. We show that SCS localizes to the enigmatic Blastocystis organelles, indicating that these organelles might play a similar role in energy metabolism as classic mitochondria. Although analysis of residues inside the nucleotide‐binding site suggests that Blastocystis SCS is GTP‐specific, we demonstrate that it is ATP‐specific. Homology modelling, followed by flexible docking and molecular dynamics simulations, indicates that while both ATP and GTP fit into the Blastocystis SCS active site, GTP is destabilized by electrostatic dipole interactions with Lys 42 and Lys 110, the side‐chains of which lie outside the nucleotide‐binding cavity. It has been proposed that residues in direct contact with the substrate determine nucleotide specificity in SCS. However, our results indicate that, in Blastocystis, an electrostatic gatekeeper controls which ligands can enter the binding site.

Genome evolution: the dynamics of static genomes.

A random survey of a microsporidian genome has revealed some striking features. Although the genomes of microsporidians are among the smallest known for eukaryotes, their organisation appears to be well conserved.