Synergism between the Black Queen effect and the proteomic constraint on genome size reduction in the photosynthetic picoeukaryotes.

ABSTRACT: The photosynthetic picoeukaryotes (PPEs) comprise a rare example of free-living eukaryotes that have undergone genome reduction. Here, we examine a duality in the process; the proposed driver of genome reduction (the Black Queen hypothesis, BQH), and the resultant impact of genome information loss (the Proteomic Constraint hypothesis, PCH). The BQH predicts that some metabolites may be shared in the open ocean, thus driving loss of redundant metabolic pathways in individual genomes. In contrast, the PCH predicts that as the information content of a genome is reduced, the total mutation load is also reduced, leading to loss of DNA repair genes due to the resulting reduction in selective constraint. Consistent with the BQH, we observe that biosynthetic pathways involved with soluble metaboli

SUBMITTER: Derilus D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7265537 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature