Fancy a gene? A surprisingly complex evolutionary history/nof peroxiredoxins

0453266 - BC 2016 RIV AT eng J - Journal Article
Zíková, Alena - Oborník, Miroslav - Lukeš, Julius
Fancy a gene? A surprisingly complex evolutionary history/nof peroxiredoxins.
Microbial cell. Roč. 2, č. 2 (2015), s. 33-37. E-ISSN 2311-2638
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 316304
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : horizontal gene transfer * Apicomplexa * endosymbiont * Plasmodium * Chromera * peroxiredoxin * oxidative stress
Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology

While the phylum Apicomplexa includes “only” several/nthousand described species of obligatory parasites of animals, it may in fact be the most specious group of parasitic protists with over a million species [1]. The best known representatives are Plasmodium spp., Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium spp., which belong to the most important and widespread human parasites exacting an enormous disease burden. On the other hand, dinoflagellates and colpodellids, which are monophyletic with the apicomplexans, are ecologically highly significant, as they belong to the most abundant marine protists [2]. As the common ancestor of these groups was most likely a freeliving photosynthesizing protist, one wonders, which evolutionary forces contributed to the dramatic transition of some of its descendants into the arguably most successful/nintracellular parasites? Although a range of various processes and mechanisms contributed to this transition, most likely it also involved an acquisition of genes via horizontal gene transfer (HGT), which might have provided typical characteristics of a parasitic cell, such as immune escape, nutritional dependence and the capacity to invade other cells.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0254125