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Viral proteins functioning in organelles: a cryptic origin?

Jonathan Filée1, Patrick Forterre

  • 1Laboratoire de Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire, CNRS UMR-5100, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 04, France. Johathan.Filee@ibcg.biotoul.fr

Trends in Microbiology
|September 15, 2005
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Mitochondria and chloroplasts may have acquired viral enzymes from a prophage in their ancestral host. This explains how viral proteins replaced original bacterial enzymes during organelle evolution.

Area of Science:

  • * Evolutionary biology
  • * Molecular biology
  • * Genomics

Background:

  • * Mitochondria originated from alpha-proteobacteria, but many organelle proteins are not of bacterial origin.
  • * Phylogenetic studies suggest viral bacteriophage-like enzymes replaced ancestral bacterial proteins.
  • * The origin of this replacement was previously unexplained.

Purpose of the Study:

  • * To explain the puzzling observation of viral-like enzyme replacement in mitochondria.
  • * To investigate the role of bacteriophages in organelle evolution.

Main Methods:

  • * Analysis of bacterial genomics to identify cryptic prophages.
  • * Phylogenetic analysis of enzyme homologues.
  • * Comparative genomics of proteobacteria.

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Main Results:

  • * Cryptic prophages related to bacteriophages T3/T7 were found in proteobacteria genomes.
  • * A model is proposed where a prophage in the ancestral alpha-proteobacterium supplied mitochondrial enzymes.
  • * Viral RNA polymerase functions in chloroplasts, supporting viral protein integration.

Conclusions:

  • * A T3/T7-like prophage likely provided key enzymes (RNA polymerase, DNA polymerase, DNA primase) for early mitochondria.
  • * This viral gene acquisition explains the replacement of ancestral bacterial proteins.
  • * Organelle evolution was significantly influenced by the integration of viral proteins due to strong selection pressures.