Reconstructing the Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis: Do Assembly and Photoactivation Recapitulate Evolution?

ABSTRACT: Due to the great abundance of genomes and protein structures that today span a broad diversity of organisms, now more than ever before, it is possible to reconstruct the molecular evolution of protein complexes at an incredible level of detail. Here, I recount the story of oxygenic photosynthesis or how an ancestral reaction center was transformed into a sophisticated photochemical machine capable of water oxidation. First, I review the evolution of all reaction center proteins in order to highlight that Photosystem II and Photosystem I, today only found in the phylum Cyanobacteria, branched out very early in the history of photosynthesis. Therefore, it is very unlikely that they were acquired via horizontal gene transfer from any of the described phyla of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria.

SUBMITTER: Cardona T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4773611 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature