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Bridging the divide: bacteria synthesizing archaeal membrane lipids

Laura Villanueva, F.A. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt, Alexander B. Westbye, Ellen C. Hopmans, Bas E. Dutilh, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448035
Laura Villanueva
1NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1797AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
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  • For correspondence: laura.villanueva@nioz.nl
F.A. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt
2Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Science for Life, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
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Alexander B. Westbye
1NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1797AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
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Ellen C. Hopmans
1NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1797AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
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Bas E. Dutilh
2Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Science for Life, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
3Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
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Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
1NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1797AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
4Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences Utrecht University., P.O. Box 80.021, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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Abstract

Archaea synthesize membranes of isoprenoid lipids that are ether-linked to glycerol, while Bacteria/Eukarya produce membranes consisting of ester-bound fatty acids. This dichotomy in membrane lipid composition or ‘lipid divide’ is believed to have arisen after the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). A leading hypothesis is that LUCA possessed a ‘mixed heterochiral archaeal/bacterial membrane’, however no natural microbial representatives supporting this scenario have been shown to exist today. Here, we demonstrate that bacteria of the Fibrobacteres-Chlorobi-Bacteroidetes (FCB) group superphylum and related candidate phyla encode a complete pathway for archaeal membrane lipid biosynthesis in addition to the bacterial fatty acid membrane pathway. Key genes were expressed in the environment and their recombinant expression in E. coli resulted in the formation of a ‘mixed archaeal/bacterial membrane’. Our results support the existence of ‘mixed membranes’ in natural environments and their stability over large evolutionary timescales, thereby bridging a once-thought fundamental divide in biology.

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Posted October 19, 2018.
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Bridging the divide: bacteria synthesizing archaeal membrane lipids
Laura Villanueva, F.A. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt, Alexander B. Westbye, Ellen C. Hopmans, Bas E. Dutilh, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
bioRxiv 448035; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448035
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Bridging the divide: bacteria synthesizing archaeal membrane lipids
Laura Villanueva, F.A. Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt, Alexander B. Westbye, Ellen C. Hopmans, Bas E. Dutilh, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
bioRxiv 448035; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448035

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