title: Is there evidence of sexual reproduction (meiosis) in Acanthamoeba?
abstract: Evolution of independently breeding species into males and females (gametes) has remained a puzzle. Given the significant advantages of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction as a long-term species survival strategy; here, we pose the question whether there is some form of meiosis in Acanthamoeba species, which represents our ancient lineage. The recently available Acanthamoeba genome revealed several genes implicated in meiosis in sexual eukaryotes such as Spo11, Mre11, Rad50, Rad51, Rad52, Mnd1, Dmc1, Msh, and Mlh, suggesting that Acanthamoeba is capable of some form of meiosis, inferring the presence of sexual reproduction in Acanthamoeba, and that meiosis evolved early in eukaryotic evolution.
authors: Naveed A
authors: NA
authors: Khan
authors: Ruqaiyyah
authors: R
authors: Siddiqui
mesh_terms: D000048:Acanthamoeba / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; D005260:Female; D018503:Genome, Protozoan / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D000099257:Meiotic Recombination Protein SPO11
chemical_list: D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; D000099257:Meiotic Recombination Protein SPO11
keywords: Acanthamoeba ,; Gender; Sexual reproduction,