Evolutionary origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes based on
GAPDH phylogenies
Cerff, R.
Institute of Genetics, University of Braunschweig, Spielmannstr. 7,
D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
We are using chloroplast and cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases (GAPDH) as phylogenetic markers to trace the history of the endosymbiont and host cell components ancestral to the chimeric photosynthetic cell. As shown in our previous work all photosynthetic eukaryotes with plastids surrounded by two membranes and Euglena with three membranes have two highly divergent nuclear GAPDH genes, GapAB and GapC, specifying chloroplast and cytosolic enzyme functions, respectively. Both types of genes are also present in cyanobacteria (gapA and gapC) and proteobacteria (only gapC) suggesting that their closely related eukaryotic counterparts are endosymbiotic acquisitions from ancestral chloroplasts and mitochondria, respectively. Here we show that complex algal cells harboring chlorophyll c containing plastids surrounded by four membranes differ fundamentally with respect to their GAPDH gene composition reflecting their different evolutionary origin via specific eukaryote-eukaryote endosymbioses.
Cerff, R. (1995) In: GM, Schimmel P. (eds) Tracing Biological Evolution in Protein and Gene Structures, 205-227. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Liaud, M.F., Brandt, U., Scherzinger, M., Cerff, R. (1997) J. Mol. Evol., 44, S28-37.
Koksharova, O., Schubert, M., Shestakov, S., Cerff, R. (1998). Plant Mol. Biol., 36, 183-194.
| LOCATION |
DATE |
TIME |
| Lecture Hall I |
Sunday, April 5 |
04:50 pm |