The origin of the eukaryotic cell

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Molecular sequence data are beginning to provide important insights into the evolutionary origin of eukaryotic cells. Global phylogenies of numerous protein sequences indicate that the eukaryotic cell nucleus is a chimera, which has received major contributions from both a Gram-negative eubacterium and an archaebacterium. Recent studies also indicate that the formation of the nuclear envelope and the endoplasmic reticulum was accompanied by duplication of genes for the molecular chaperone proteins (e.g. hsp70, hsp90), which facilitate protein transport across membranes. Based on these observations, it is suggested that the ancestral eukaryotic cell arose by a unique endosymbiotic event involving engulfment, of an eocyte archaebacterium by a Gram-negative eubacterial host.

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      As far as we are aware, this is the first archaea-archaea scenario proposed for the symbiotic evolution of the eukaryotic cell and it's nucleus. An archaeal symbiotic origin of the nucleus was proposed by symbiosis of archaea within bacteria (Gupta and Golding, 1996; Horiike et al., 2001). Other theories suggested a eubacterial guest cell was taken-up by an archaeal host cell (Dolan et al., 2002; Margulis et al., 2000, 2006, 2007).

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      Such an idea was put forward in the framework of the syntrophy hypothesis, which proposes the endosymbiotic origin of the nucleus [31] (Figure 2C). Endosymbiotic models for the origin of the nucleus easily account for the presence of a different compartment [21,28,31], but the difficulty here lies in how to explain what drives the endosymbiosis and the origin of the endomembrane system. In the syntrophy hypothesis, the endoplasmic reticulum and the nuclear membrane evolve with a primary secretory role from the internalization of the inner plasma membrane of the host bacterium, and in a way that is analogous to that proposed by autogenous models (and that would be most similar to the membrane internalization seen in other Gram-negative bacteria, with the external membrane retaining its cell-boundary role).

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    1

    R. S. Gupta is at the Department of Biochemistry

    2

    G. B. Golding is at the Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5.

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