TY - JOUR
T1 - Genomic analysis finds no evidence of canonical eukaryotic DNA processing complexes in a free-living protist
AU - Salas-Leiva, Dayana E.
AU - Tromer, Eelco C.
AU - Curtis, Bruce A.
AU - Jerlström-Hultqvist, Jon
AU - Kolisko, Martin
AU - Yi, Zhenzhen
AU - Salas-Leiva, Joan S.
AU - Gallot-Lavallée, Lucie
AU - Williams, Shelby K.
AU - Kops, Geert J.P.L.
AU - Archibald, John M.
AU - Simpson, Alastair G.B.
AU - Roger, Andrew J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The majority of this work was supported by a Foundation grant FRN-142349, awarded to A.J.R. by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Archibald Lab contributions to this study were supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN 05871-2014). E.C.T. acknowledges support from a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Cambridge, UK), and the Dutch Science Organisation (VI.Veni.202.223). We would like to thank Ryan Wick for his helpful comments on genome assembly error correction.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Cells replicate and segregate their DNA with precision. Previous studies showed that these regulated cell-cycle processes were present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor and that their core molecular parts are conserved across eukaryotes. However, some metamonad parasites have secondarily lost components of the DNA processing and segregation apparatuses. To clarify the evolutionary history of these systems in these unusual eukaryotes, we generated a genome assembly for the free-living metamonad Carpediemonas membranifera and carried out a comparative genomics analysis. Here, we show that parasitic and free-living metamonads harbor an incomplete set of proteins for processing and segregating DNA. Unexpectedly, Carpediemonas species are further streamlined, lacking the origin recognition complex, Cdc6 and most structural kinetochore subunits. Carpediemonas species are thus the first known eukaryotes that appear to lack this suite of conserved complexes, suggesting that they likely rely on yet-to-be-discovered or alternative mechanisms to carry out these fundamental processes.
AB - Cells replicate and segregate their DNA with precision. Previous studies showed that these regulated cell-cycle processes were present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor and that their core molecular parts are conserved across eukaryotes. However, some metamonad parasites have secondarily lost components of the DNA processing and segregation apparatuses. To clarify the evolutionary history of these systems in these unusual eukaryotes, we generated a genome assembly for the free-living metamonad Carpediemonas membranifera and carried out a comparative genomics analysis. Here, we show that parasitic and free-living metamonads harbor an incomplete set of proteins for processing and segregating DNA. Unexpectedly, Carpediemonas species are further streamlined, lacking the origin recognition complex, Cdc6 and most structural kinetochore subunits. Carpediemonas species are thus the first known eukaryotes that appear to lack this suite of conserved complexes, suggesting that they likely rely on yet-to-be-discovered or alternative mechanisms to carry out these fundamental processes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117404466&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-26077-2
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-26077-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 34650064
AN - SCOPUS:85117404466
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 6003
ER -