Endosymbiosis: Did Plastids Evolve from a Freshwater Cyanobacterium?
Photosynthetic eukaryotes are the product of an endosymbiotic event between a eukaryotic host and a cyanobacterium that became today's plastid. A new phylogenomic study suggests that the closest relative of plastids among extant cyanobacteria is the recently discovered freshwater-dwelling Gloeomargarita lithophora.
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Jan
J
de Vries
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; Program in Integrated Microbial Biodiversity, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: john.archibald@dal.ca.
John M
JM
Archibald
D005075:Biological Evolution; D000458:Cyanobacteria; D005618:Fresh Water; D010802:Phylogeny; D018087:Plastids; D013559:Symbiosis