A cnidarian parasite of salmon (Myxozoa: Henneguya) lacks a mitochondrial genome.

ABSTRACT: Although aerobic respiration is a hallmark of eukaryotes, a few unicellular lineages, growing in hypoxic environments, have secondarily lost this ability. In the absence of oxygen, the mitochondria of these organisms have lost all or parts of their genomes and evolved into mitochondria-related organelles (MROs). There has been debate regarding the presence of MROs in animals. Using deep sequencing approaches, we discovered that a member of the Cnidaria, the myxozoan Henneguya salminicola, has no mitochondrial genome, and thus has lost the ability to perform aerobic cellular respiration. This indicates that these core eukaryotic features are not ubiquitous among animals. Our analyses suggest that H. salminicola lost not only its mitochondrial genome but also nearly all nuclear

SUBMITTER: Yahalomi D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7071853 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature