RESUMEN
Mikrocytos mackini is an intracellular protistan parasite of oysters whose position in the phylogenetic tree of eukaryotes has been a mystery for many years [1,2]. M. mackini is difficult to isolate, has not been cultured, and has no defining morphological feature. Furthermore, its only phylogenetic marker that has been successfully sequenced to date (the small subunit ribosomal RNA) is highly divergent and has failed to resolve its evolutionary position [2]. M. mackini is also one of the few eukaryotes that lacks mitochondria [1], making both its phylogenetic position and comparative analysis of mitochondrial function particularly important. Here, we have obtained transcriptomic data for M. mackini from enriched isolates and constructed a 119-gene phylogenomic data set. M. mackini proved to be among the fastest-evolving eukaryote lineages known to date, but, nevertheless, our analysis robustly placed it within Rhizaria. Searching the transcriptome for genetic evidence of a mitochondrion-related organelle (MRO) revealed only four mitochondrion-derived genes: IscS, IscU, mtHsp70, and FdxR. Interestingly, all four genes are involved in iron-sulfur cluster formation, a biochemical pathway common to other highly reduced "mitosomes" in unrelated MRO-containing lineages [7]. This is the first evidence of MRO in Rhizaria, and it suggests the parallel evolution of mitochondria to mitosomes in this supergroup.
Asunto(s)
ADN Protozoario/genética , Genoma de Protozoos , Filogenia , Rhizaria/genética , Animales , ADN Complementario/genética , ADN Complementario/metabolismo , ADN Protozoario/metabolismo , Evolución Molecular , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , Ostreidae/parasitología , Rhizaria/clasificación , Rhizaria/metabolismo , Rhizaria/fisiología , Análisis de Secuencia de ADNRESUMEN
Foraminifers are a major component of modern marine ecosystems and one of the most important oceanic producers of calcium carbonate. They are a key phylogenetic group among amoeboid protists, but our knowledge of their genome is still mostly limited to a few conserved genes. Here, we report the first study of expressed genes by means of expressed sequence tag (EST) from the freshwater naked foraminiferan Reticulomyxa filosa. Cluster analysis of 1630 valid ESTs enabled the identification of 178 groups of related sequences and 871 singlets. Approximately 50% of the putative unique 1059 ESTs could be annotated using Blast searches against the protein database SwissProt + TrEMBL. The EST database described here is the first step towards gene discovery in Foraminifera and should provide the basis for new insights into the genomic and transcriptomic characteristics of these interesting but poorly understood protists.