RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Dinoflagellates with relic endosymbiont nuclei as novel models for elucidating organellogenesis
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 702274
DO 10.1101/702274
A1 Chihiro Sarai
A1 Goro Tanifuji
A1 Takuro Nakayama
A1 Ryoma Kamikawa
A1 Kazuya Takahashi
A1 Hideaki Miyashita
A1 Ken-ichiro Ishida
A1 Mitsunori Iwataki
A1 Yuji Inagaki
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/14/702274.abstract
AB Nucleomorphs are relic endosymbiont nuclei so far found only in two algal groups, cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes, which have been studied to model the evolutionary process integrating an endosymbiont alga into be a host-governed plastid (organellogenesis). Nevertheless, past studies suggested that DNA transfer from the endosymbiont to host nuclei had already ceased in both cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes, implying that the organellogenesis at the genetic level has been completed in the two systems. Moreover, we have yet to pinpoint the closest free-living relative of the endosymbiotic alga engulfed by the ancestral chlorarachniophyte or cryptophyte, making difficult to infer how organellogenesis altered the endosymbiont genome. To counter the above issues, we need novel nucleomorph-bearing algae, in which from-endosymbiont-to-host DNA transfer is on-going and of which endosymbiont/plastid origins can be inferred at a fine taxonomic scale. Here, we report two previously undescribed dinoflagellates, strains MGD and TGD, with green algal endosymbionts enclosing plastids as well as relic nuclei (nucleomorphs). We provide the evidence for the presence of DNA in the two nucleomorphs and transfer of endosymbiont genes to the host (dinoflagellate) genomes. Furthermore, DNA transfer between the host and endosymbiont nuclei was found to be in progress in both MGD and TGD systems. Phylogenetic analyses successfully resolved the origins of the endosymbionts at the genus level. Combined, we conclude that the host-endosymbiont integration in MGD/TGD is less advanced than that in cryptophytes/chrorarachniophytes, and propose the two dinoflagellates as new models for elucidating organellogenesis.