Evolution: origin of eukaryotes: Archaea (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 17:52 (2017 days ago) @ David Turell

Another review of the origin of eukaryotes, possibly from archaea:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01496-w?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_c...

"a group of microbes — the Lokiarchaeota — that is rewriting a fundamental story about life’s early roots.

"These unruly microbes belong to a category of single-celled organisms called archaea, which resemble bacteria under a microscope but are as distinct from them in some respects as humans are. The Lokis, as they are sometimes known, were discovered by sequencing DNA from sea-floor muck collected near Greenland1. Together with some related microbes, they are prodding biologists to reconsider one of the greatest events in the history of life on Earth — the appearance of the eukaryotes, the group of organisms that includes all plants, animals, fungi and more.

"The discovery of archaea in the late 1970s led scientists to propose that the tree of life diverged long ago into three main trunks, or ‘domains’. One trunk gave rise to modern bacteria; one to archaea. And the third produced eukaryotes. But debates soon erupted over the structure of these trunks. A leading ‘three-domain’ model held that archaea and eukaryotes diverged from a common ancestor. But a two-domain scenario suggested that eukaryotes diverged directly from a subgroup of archaea.

***

"These newly discovered archaea have genes that are considered hallmarks of eukaryotes. And deep analysis of the organisms’ DNA suggests that modern eukaryotes belong to the same archaeal group. If that’s the case, essentially all complex life — everything from green algae to blue whales — originally came from archaea.

"But many scientists remain unconvinced. Evolutionary tree building is messy, contentious work. And no one has yet published evidence to show that these organisms can be grown in the lab, which makes them difficult to study. The debate is still rancorous. Stalwarts on both sides are “very hostile to each other, and 100% believe there’s nothing correct in the other camp”, Hugenholtz says. Some decline to voice an opinion, for fear of offending senior colleagues.

***

"Today, the argument over where eukaryotes came from has matured. Many on both sides agree that the origin of eukaryotes probably involved a step known as endosymbiosis. This theory, championed by the late biologist Lynn Margulis, holds that a simple host cell living eons ago somehow swallowed a bacterium, and the two struck up a mutually beneficial relationship. These captive bacteria eventually evolved into mitochondria — the cellular substructures that produce energy — and the hybrid cells became what are now known as eukaryotes.

"The nature of the engulfing cell is where the two camps diverge. As the three-domain adherents tell it, the engulfer was an ancestral microbe, now extinct. According to Forterre, it was a “proto-eukaryote” — “neither a modern archaeon nor a modern eukaryote”. In this model, there were several major splits in early evolution. The first happened billions of years ago, when primeval organisms gave rise to both bacteria and an extinct group of microbes. This latter group diverged into archaea and the group that became eukaryotes.

***

"Like their namesake, Lokiarchaeota and their kin evade easy description. They are unquestionably archaea, but their genomes include a smorgasbord of genes that are similar to some found in eukaryotes. Loki DNA, for example, contains genetic instructions for actins, proteins that form a skeleton-like framework in eukaryotic cells. The genes seemed so out of place that the researcher who spotted them initially worried that contamination was to blame.

***

"researchers are turning to other lines of evidence that might support a two-domain tree. Bacteria and eukaryotes have one set of lipids in their cell membranes, whereas archaeal membranes contain a different set. A mixture of the two was thought to be unstable. This ‘lipid divide’ has been a sore spot for the two-domain proponents, because it implies that if eukaryotes came from archaea, they would have had to switch from using archaeal lipids to producing bacterial versions.

***

"The overall picture is still unclear. In Norse legends, Loki often sows mayhem — and then sets everything right again. As the Lokiarchaeota and their relatives emerge from the shadows, two-domain supporters would like them to settle the long-standing debate over the origin of complex life. But that could take a while. “When we discovered the Asgard archaea, we thought that would convince everybody,” says Spang with a laugh. “That wasn’t the case.'”

Comment: Where did eukaryotes come from? A giant step, still unknown.