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A widespread coral-infecting apicomplexan contains a plastid encoding chlorophyll biosynthesis

View ORCID ProfileWaldan K. Kwong, View ORCID ProfileJavier del Campo, View ORCID ProfileVarsha Mathur, View ORCID ProfileMark J. A. Vermeij, View ORCID ProfilePatrick J. Keeling
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/391565
Waldan K. Kwong
1Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
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  • For correspondence: waldankwong@gmail.com
Javier del Campo
1Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
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Varsha Mathur
1Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
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Mark J. A. Vermeij
2Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 700, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
3CARMABI Foundation, PO Box 2090, Piscaderabaai z/n, Willemstad, Curaçao.
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Patrick J. Keeling
1Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
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Abstract

The Apicomplexa are an important group of obligate intracellular parasites that include the causative agents of human diseases like malaria and toxoplasmosis. They evolved from free-living, phototrophic ancestors, and how this transition to parasitism occurred remains an outstanding question. One potential clue lies in coral reefs, where environmental DNA surveys have uncovered several lineages of uncharacterized, basally-branching apicomplexans. Reef-building corals form a well-studied symbiotic relationship with the photosynthetic dinoflagellate Symbiodinium, but identification of other key microbial symbionts of corals has proven elusive. Here, we used community surveys, genomics, and microscopy to identify an apicomplexan lineage, which we name ‘corallicola’, that was found in high prevalence (>80%) across all major groups of corals. In-situ fluorescence and electron microscopy confirmed that corallicola lives intracellularly within the tissues of the coral gastric cavity, and possesses clear apicomplexan ultrastructural features. We sequenced the plastid genome, which lacked all genes for photosystem proteins, indicating that corallicola harbours a non-photosynthetic plastid (an apicoplast). However, the corallicola plastid differed from all other known apicoplasts because it retains all four genes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis. Hence, corallicola shares characteristics with both its parasitic and free-living relatives, implicating it as an evolutionary intermediate, and suggesting that a unique ancestral biochemistry likely operated during the transition from phototrophy to parasitism.

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Posted August 14, 2018.
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A widespread coral-infecting apicomplexan contains a plastid encoding chlorophyll biosynthesis
Waldan K. Kwong, Javier del Campo, Varsha Mathur, Mark J. A. Vermeij, Patrick J. Keeling
bioRxiv 391565; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/391565
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A widespread coral-infecting apicomplexan contains a plastid encoding chlorophyll biosynthesis
Waldan K. Kwong, Javier del Campo, Varsha Mathur, Mark J. A. Vermeij, Patrick J. Keeling
bioRxiv 391565; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/391565

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