Post by aqt on Jan 13, 2009 13:27:24 GMT -5
www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W7G-4PKX5T0-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=56b32708d6d0882a08f8114315bb12b5
Horizontal gene transfer in trypanosomatids
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
Fred R. Opperdoesa, and Paul A.M. Michelsa
aResearch Unit for Tropical Diseases, Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology and Laboratory of Biochemistry, Université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 74-75, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
Available online 7 September 2007.
Trypanosomes harbour a large number of structural and biochemical peculiarities. Kinetoplast DNA, mitochondrial RNA editing, the sequestration of glycolysis inside glycosomes and unique oxidative-stress protection mechanisms (to name but a few) are found only in the members of the order Kinetoplastida. Thus, it is not surprising that they have provoked much speculation about why and how such oddities have evolved in trypanosomes. However, the true reasons for their existence within the eukaryotic world are still far from clear. Here, Fred Opperdoes and Paul Michels argue that the trypanosome-specific evolution of novel processes and organization could only have been made possible by the acquisition of a large number of foreign genes, which entered a trypanosomatid ancestor through lateral gene transfer. Many different organisms must have served as donors. Some of them were viruses, and others were bacteria, such as cyanobacterial endosymbionts and non-phototrophic bacteria.
The trypanosomes form a robust clade with these cyanobacteria in phylogenetic- tree ... whereas in mammals fusion has occurred in forward order
aqt
Horizontal gene transfer in trypanosomatids
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
Fred R. Opperdoesa, and Paul A.M. Michelsa
aResearch Unit for Tropical Diseases, Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology and Laboratory of Biochemistry, Université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 74-75, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
Available online 7 September 2007.
Trypanosomes harbour a large number of structural and biochemical peculiarities. Kinetoplast DNA, mitochondrial RNA editing, the sequestration of glycolysis inside glycosomes and unique oxidative-stress protection mechanisms (to name but a few) are found only in the members of the order Kinetoplastida. Thus, it is not surprising that they have provoked much speculation about why and how such oddities have evolved in trypanosomes. However, the true reasons for their existence within the eukaryotic world are still far from clear. Here, Fred Opperdoes and Paul Michels argue that the trypanosome-specific evolution of novel processes and organization could only have been made possible by the acquisition of a large number of foreign genes, which entered a trypanosomatid ancestor through lateral gene transfer. Many different organisms must have served as donors. Some of them were viruses, and others were bacteria, such as cyanobacterial endosymbionts and non-phototrophic bacteria.
The trypanosomes form a robust clade with these cyanobacteria in phylogenetic- tree ... whereas in mammals fusion has occurred in forward order
aqt