Was the Chlamydial Adaptative Strategy to Tryptophan Starvation an Early Determinant of Plastid Endosymbiosis?

ABSTRACT: Chlamydiales were recently proposed to have sheltered the future cyanobacterial ancestor of plastids in a common inclusion. The intracellular pathogens are thought to have donated those critical transporters that triggered the efflux of photosynthetic carbon and the consequent onset of symbiosis. Chlamydiales are also suspected to have encoded glycogen metabolism TTS (Type Three Secretion) effectors responsible for photosynthetic carbon assimilation in the eukaryotic cytosol. We now review the reasons underlying other chlamydial lateral gene transfers evidenced in the descendants of plastid endosymbiosis. In particular we show that half of the genes encoding enzymes of tryptophan synthesis in Archaeplastida are of chlamydial origin. Tryptophan concentration is an essential cue triggering t

SUBMITTER: Cenci U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4916741 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature