What is it about?
Mining information in the genomes of cellular organisms allowed to study their proteins. Using phylogenetic techniques, it was possible to rebuild a common ancestor of life that existed 2.9 billion years ago. This ancestor was complex given the number of proteins that made part of it. It also contained information about ancient internal storage structures (organelles) similar to 'acidocalcisomes', which likely accumulated polyphosphate compounds that stored energy for the early metabolic needs of the primordial cells. Remarkably, cellular structures corresponding to modern acidocalcisomes appear universal. They exist in Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, the three cellular super kingdoms of life.
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Why is it important?
Findings are compatible with relatively complex and cellularly structured organisms existing 2.9 billion years ago, which are supported by the existence of abundant microfossil evidence of primordial microbial communities as far back as 3.4 billion years ago. Results highlight the centrality of the cellular compartment and bioenergetics in the early evolutionary stages of life.
Perspectives
This work interfaces two unlikely areas of research, evolutionary genomics and cellular biology.
Professor Gustavo Caetano-Anolles
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Phylogenomics Supports a Cellularly Structured Urancestor, Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, January 2013, Karger Publishers,
DOI: 10.1159/000346552.
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