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Related Experiment Videos

Ancestral lipid biosynthesis and early membrane evolution.

Juli Peretó1, Purificación López-García, David Moreira

  • 1Unité d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UMR CNRS 8079, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.

Trends in Biochemical Sciences
|September 1, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Archaea use unique isoprenoid ether lipids, while bacteria and eukaryotes use fatty acid esters. Enzymes producing their respective glycerol backbones (G1PDH and G3PDH) are unrelated, suggesting distinct evolutionary paths from the common ancestor.

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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Astrobiology

Background:

  • Archaea feature unique membrane phospholipids with isoprenoid ethers derived from sn-glycerol-1-phosphate (G1P).
  • Bacteria and eukaryotes utilize fatty acid esters linked to sn-glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) for their membranes.
  • The enzymes responsible for producing G1P (G1PDH) and G3P (G3PDH) are non-homologous, posing questions about early membrane evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary origins of archaeal and bacterial membrane lipid synthesis pathways.
  • To explore the nature of membrane lipids in the last universal common ancestor (cenancestor).
  • To reconcile the presence of distinct glycerol backbone synthesis enzymes with universal gene distribution.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of G1PDH and G3PDH enzyme superfamilies.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Bioinformatic examination of gene distribution across prokaryotic domains.
  • Inference of ancestral metabolic capabilities based on extant homologues.

    • Main Results:

    • G1PDH and G3PDH belong to separate, universally distributed superfamilies, indicating their presence in the cenancestor.
    • Archaea possess homologs of bacterial fatty acid metabolism genes and can synthesize fatty acid phospholipids.
    • The cenancestor likely had enzymatic, but possibly non-stereospecific, lipid synthesis.

    Conclusions:

    • The distinct glycerol backbone synthesis pathways in archaea and bacteria likely originated before the divergence of these domains.
    • The cenancestor possessed genes for both isoprenoid and fatty acid lipid synthesis, suggesting a more complex membrane composition than previously thought.
    • Archaea's ability to synthesize fatty acid phospholipids highlights a potential ancestral trait retained from the cenancestor.