How oxygen gave rise to eukaryotic sex.

ABSTRACT: How did full meiotic eukaryotic sex evolve and what was the immediate advantage allowing it to develop? We propose that the crucial determinant can be found in internal reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation at the start of eukaryotic evolution approximately 2 × 109 years ago. The large amount of ROS coming from a bacterial endosymbiont gave rise to DNA damage and vast increases in host genome mutation rates. Eukaryogenesis and chromosome evolution represent adaptations to oxidative stress. The host, an archaeon, most probably already had repair mechanisms based on DNA pairing and recombination, and possibly some kind of primitive cell fusion mechanism. The detrimental effects of internal ROS formation on host genome integrity set the stage allowing evolution of meiotic sex from these hum

SUBMITTER: Horandl E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5829205 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature