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The chimeric eukaryote: origin of the nucleus from the karyomastigont in amitochondriate protistsWe present a testable model for the origin of the nucleus, the membrane-bounded organelle that defines eukaryotes. A chimeric cell evolved via symbiogenesis by syntrophic merger between an archaebacterium and a eubacterium. The archaebacterium, a thermoacidophil resembling extant Thermoplasma, generated hydrogen sulfide to protect the eubacterium, a heterotrophic swimmer comparable to Spirochaeta or Hollandina that oxidized sulfide to sulfur. Selection pressure for speed swimming and oxygen avoidance led to an ancient analogue of the extant cosmopolitan bacterial consortium "Thiodendron latens." By eubacterial-archaebacterial genetic integration, the chimera, an amitochondriate heterotroph, evolved. This "earliest branching protist" that formed by permanent DNA recombination generated the nucleus as a component of the karyomastigont, an intracellular complex that assured genetic continuity of the former symbionts. The karyomastigont organellar system, common in extant amitochondriate protists as well as in presumed mitochondriate ancestors, minimally consists of a single nucleus, a single kinetosome and their protein connector. As predecessor of standard mitosis, the karyomastigont preceded free (unattached) nuclei. The nucleus evolved in karyomastigont ancestors by detachment at least five times (archamoebae, calonymphids, chlorophyte green algae, ciliates, foraminifera). This specific model of syntrophic chimeric fusion can be proved by sequence comparison of functional domains of motility proteins isolated from candidate taxa.
Document ID
20040141515
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Margulis, L.
(University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003, United States)
Dolan, M. F.
Guerrero, R.
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
June 20, 2000
Publication Information
Publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume: 97
Issue: 13
ISSN: 0027-8424
Subject Category
Exobiology
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Review, Tutorial
Non-NASA Center
NASA Discipline Exobiology
Review

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