title: Tellurium as a valuable tool for studying the prokaryotic origins of mitochondria.
abstract: Mitochondria are eukaryotic organelles which contain the own genetic material and evolved from free-living Eubacteria, namely hydrogen-producing Alphaproteobacteria. Since 1965, biologists provided, by research at molecular level, evidence for the prokaryotic origins of mitochondria. However, determining the precise origins of mitochondria is challenging due to inherent difficulties in phylogenetically reconstructing ancient evolutionary events. The use of new tools to evidence the prokaryotic origin of mitochondria could be useful to gain an insight into the bacterial endosymbiotic event that resulted in the permanent acquisition of bacteria, from the ancestral cell, that through time were transformed into mitochondria. Electron microscopy has shown that both proteobacterial and yeast cells during their growth in the presence of increasing amount of tellurite resulted in dose-dependent blackening of the culture due to elemental tellurium (Te(0)) that formed large deposits either along the proteobacterial membrane or along the yeast cell wall and mitochondria. Since the mitochondrial inner membrane composition is similar to that of proteobacterial membrane, in the present work we evidenced the black tellurium deposits on both, cell wall and mitochondria of ρ(+) and respiratory deficient ρ(-) mutants of yeast. A possible role of tellurite in studying the evolutionary origins of mitochondria will be discussed.
authors: Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-UOS Portici (IBBR-UOS Portici), CNR, Portici (NA) c/o Dipartimento di Biologia, Sezione di Igiene, Napoli 80134, Italy.
authors: Paola
authors: P
authors: Pontieri
authors: Department of Environmental Sciences, Second University of Naples, via A. Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy.
authors: Mario
authors: M
authors: De Stefano
authors: Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-UOS Portici (IBBR-UOS Portici), CNR, Portici (NA) c/o Dipartimento di Biologia, Sezione di Igiene, Napoli 80134, Italy.
authors: Domenica Rita
authors: DR
authors: Massardo
authors: Sojo-University, Ikeda 4-22-1, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan.
authors: Norio
authors: N
authors: Gunge
authors: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan.
authors: Isamu
authors: I
authors: Miyakawa
authors: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan.
authors: Nobundo
authors: N
authors: Sando
authors: Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (IBBR), CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy.
authors: Domenico
authors: D
authors: Pignone
authors: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Salento, via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
authors: Graziano
authors: G
authors: Pizzolante
authors: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Salento, via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
authors: Roberta
authors: R
authors: Romano
authors: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Salento, via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
authors: Pietro
authors: P
authors: Alifano
authors: Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-UOS Portici (IBBR-UOS Portici), CNR, Portici (NA) c/o Dipartimento di Biologia, Sezione di Igiene, Napoli 80134, Italy. Electronic address: delgiudilg@virgilio.it.
authors: Luigi
authors: L
authors: Del Giudice
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D019617:Halobacterium salinarum / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051336:Mitochondrial Membranes / Q000378:metabolism; D042806:Neisseria lactamica / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020578:Sphingomonas / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013691:Tellurium / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D013691:Tellurium
keywords: Endosymbiosis; Mitochondria; Proteobacteria; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Tellurite; Transmission electronic microscopy