Factors mediating plastid dependency and the origins of parasitism in apicomplexans and their close relatives.

ABSTRACT: Apicomplexans are a major lineage of parasites, including causative agents of malaria and toxoplasmosis. How such highly adapted parasites evolved from free-living ancestors is poorly understood, particularly because they contain nonphotosynthetic plastids with which they have a complex metabolic dependency. Here, we examine the origin of apicomplexan parasitism by resolving the evolutionary distribution of several key characteristics in their closest free-living relatives, photosynthetic chromerids and predatory colpodellids. Using environmental sequence data, we describe the diversity of these apicomplexan-related lineages and select five species that represent this diversity for transcriptome sequencing. Phylogenomic analysis recovered a monophyletic lineage of chromerids and colpodelli

SUBMITTER: Janouskovec J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4547307 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature