RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Characterisation of the Ubiquitin-ESCRT pathway in Asgard archaea sheds new light on origins of membrane trafficking in eukaryotes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.08.17.456605
DO 10.1101/2021.08.17.456605
A1 Tomoyuki Hatano
A1 Saravanan Palani
A1 Dimitra Papatziamou
A1 Diorge P. Souza
A1 Ralf Salzer
A1 Daniel Tamarit
A1 Mehul Makwana
A1 Antonia Potter
A1 Alexandra Haig
A1 Wenjue Xu
A1 David Townsend
A1 David Rochester
A1 Dom Bellini
A1 Hamdi M. A. Hussain
A1 Thijs Ettema
A1 Jan Löwe
A1 Buzz Baum
A1 Nicholas P. Robinson
A1 Mohan Balasubramanian
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/17/2021.08.17.456605.abstract
AB The ESCRT machinery performs a critical role in membrane remodelling events in all eukaryotic cells, including in membrane trafficking, membrane repair, cytokinetic abscission, in viral egress, and in the generation of extracellular vesicles. While the machinery is complex in modern day eukaryotes, where it comprises dozens of proteins, the system has simpler and more ancient origins. Indeed, homologues of ESCRT-III and the Vps4 ATPase, the proteins that execute the final membrane scission reaction, play analogous roles in cytokinesis and potentially in extracellular vesicle formation in TACK archaea where ESCRT-I and II homologues seem to be absent. Here, we explore the phylogeny, structure, and biochemistry of homologues of the ESCRT machinery and the associated ubiquitylation system found in genome assemblies of the recently discovered Asgard archaea. In these closest living prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes, we provide evidence for the ESCRT-I and II sub-complexes being involved in the ubiquitin-directed recruitment of ESCRT-III,_as it is in eukaryotes. This analysis suggests a pre-eukaryotic origin for the Ub-coupled ESCRT system and a likely path of ESCRT evolution via a series of gene duplication and diversification events.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.