Horizontal gene transfer in trypanosomatids.
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.
Opperdoes
Fred R
FR
Research 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. fred.opperdoes@uclouvain.be
Michels
Paul A M
PA
D000818:Animals; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005814:Genes, Viral; D018503:Genome, Protozoan; D010802:Phylogeny; D014351:Trypanosomatina / Q000235:genetics*