Evidence for a hydrogenosomal-type anaerobic ATP generation pathway in Acanthamoeba castellanii.

ABSTRACT: Diverse, distantly-related eukaryotic lineages have adapted to low-oxygen environments, and possess mitochondrion-related organelles that have lost the capacity to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through oxidative phosphorylation. A subset of these organelles, hydrogenosomes, has acquired a set of characteristic ATP generation enzymes commonly found in anaerobic bacteria. The recipient of these enzymes could not have survived prior to their acquisition had it not still possessed the electron transport chain present in the ancestral mitochondrion. In the divergence of modern hydrogenosomes from mitochondria, a transitional organelle must therefore have existed that possessed both an electron transport chain and an anaerobic ATP generation pathway. Here, we report a modern analog of th

SUBMITTER: Leger MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3785491 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature