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Revolutionary research: How endosymbionts shape our cells!
Research at the University of Düsseldorf reveals how endosymbionts work in cells and their evolutionary significance.
Revolutionary research: How endosymbionts shape our cells!
A significant advance in research on organelles and their evolution was recently made by a team led by Prof. Dr. Eva Nowack presented at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. Your study, published in the journal Science Advances was published, deals with the assimilation process of endosymbionts, which were originally integrated into eukaryotes as independent organisms.
The research focuses on the single-celled flagellateAngomonas deanei, which lives in the intestines of insects and coexists with an endosymbiont. Historically, between 40 and 120 million years ago, an ancestor of the Strigomonadinae absorbed a protobacterium that became an endosymbiont. This endosymbiont plays a crucial role by providing the host cell with important metabolites and co-factors.
Endosymbionts and their functions
A notable aspect of the study is the finding that each host cell has exactly one endosymbiont that shares with it. The research team had already reported on the interactions between host cells and their endosymbionts in 2022. Current studies show that the protein ETP9 plays a central role in marking the division site of the endosymbiont. The accumulation of ETP9 at this site is cycle dependent and any experimental disruption of its production results in the formation of filamentous forms that cannot further divide.
The team also discovered that Strigomonadinae endosymbionts have lost almost all cell division genes except for the FtsZ gene, one of the few remaining bacterial cell division genes. This suggests that the endosymbiont inA. Deaneiis in an intermediate stage between an autonomous bacterium and a full-fledged organelle. The functions that genes once performed for autonomous survival are increasingly being taken over by the nucleus of the host cell.
Research perspectives
These findings are not only of academic interest, but also open up new possibilities for the development of synthetic symbioses. Future studies could produce synthetic endosymbionts that are directly controlled by the nucleus. This area of research could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of symbiosis and cell biology.
The research tooAngomonas deaneiis part of a broader effort to shed light on new aspects of the family Trypanosomatidae. A previous study on the proteins ofAngomonas deaneiandStrigomonas culicisand their endosymbionts were already published in the journal in 2013 PLoS One published, underscoring the long-lasting relevance of these topics.
The results of this current study byAnay Mauryaet al. are promising and help to complete the picture of the evolution of organelles from bacteria. Further research in this area will undoubtedly provide conclusive answers to questions affecting the fundamentals of cell and evolutionary biology.