| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Invited Special Papers |
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Botany Department, University of British Columbia, 3529–6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4 Canada
By synthesizing data from individual gene phylogenies, large concatenated gene trees, and other kinds of molecular, morphological, and biochemical markers, we begin to see the broad outlines of a global phylogenetic tree of eukaryotes. This tree is apparently composed of five large assemblages, or "supergroups." Plants and algae, or more generally eukaryotes with plastids (the photosynthetic organelle of plants and algae and their nonphotosynthetic derivatives) are scattered among four of the five supergroups. This is because plastids have had a complex evolutionary history involving several endosymbiotic events that have led to their transmission from one group to another. Here, the history of the plastid and of its various hosts is reviewed with particular attention to the number and nature of the endosymbiotic events that led to the current distribution of plastids. There is accumulating evidence to support a single primary origin of plastids from a cyanobacterium (with one intriguing possible exception in the little-studied amoeba Paulinella), followed by the diversification of glaucophytes, red and green algae, with plants evolving from green algae. Following this, some of these algae were themselves involved in secondary endosymbiotic events. The best current evidence indicates that two independent secondary endosymbioses involving green algae gave rise to euglenids and chlorarachniophytes, whereas a single endosymbiosis with a red algae gave rise to the chromalveolates, a diverse group including cryptomonads, haptophytes, heterokonts, and alveolates. Dinoflagellates (alveolates) have since taken up other algae in serial secondary and tertiary endosymbioses, raising a number of controversies over the origin of their plastids, and by extension, the recently discovered cryptic plastid of the closely related apicomplexan parasites.
Key Words: algae • endosymbiosis • phylogeny • plastid • tree of eukaryotes
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. B. Dacks and M. C. Field Evolution of the eukaryotic membrane-trafficking system: origin, tempo and mode J. Cell Sci., September 1, 2007; 120(17): 2977 - 2985. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. Khan, N. Parks, C. Kozera, B. A. Curtis, B. J. Parsons, S. Bowman, and J. M. Archibald Plastid Genome Sequence of the Cryptophyte Alga Rhodomonas salina CCMP1319: Lateral Transfer of Putative DNA Replication Machinery and a Test of Chromist Plastid Phylogeny Mol. Biol. Evol., August 1, 2007; 24(8): 1832 - 1842. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. A. Moran Colloquium Papers: Symbiosis as an adaptive process and source of phenotypic complexity PNAS, May 15, 2007; 104(suppl_1): 8627 - 8633. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Maple and S. G. Moller Plastid Division: Evolution, Mechanism and Complexity Ann. Bot., April 1, 2007; 99(4): 565 - 579. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. G. Koziol, T. Borza, K.-I. Ishida, P. Keeling, R. W. Lee, and D. G. Durnford Tracing the Evolution of the Light-Harvesting Antennae in Chlorophyll a/b-Containing Organisms Plant Physiology, April 1, 2007; 143(4): 1802 - 1816. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. G. Durnford and M. W. Gray Analysis of Euglena gracilis Plastid-Targeted Proteins Reveals Different Classes of Transit Sequences Eukaryot. Cell, December 1, 2006; 5(12): 2079 - 2091. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. F. Waller, N. J. Patron, and P. J. Keeling Phylogenetic history of plastid-targeted proteins in the peridinin-containing dinoflagellate Heterocapsa triquetra Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, June 1, 2006; 56(6): 1439 - 1447. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. E. Lane, H. Khan, M. MacKinnon, A. Fong, S. Theophilou, and J. M. Archibald Insight into the Diversity and Evolution of the Cryptomonad Nucleomorph Genome Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2006; 23(5): 856 - 865. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. L. Robertson and A. Tartar Evolution of Glutamine Synthetase in Heterokonts: Evidence for Endosymbiotic Gene Transfer and the Early Evolution of Photosynthesis Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2006; 23(5): 1048 - 1055. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. J. Vermeij Historical contingency and the purported uniqueness of evolutionary innovations PNAS, February 7, 2006; 103(6): 1804 - 1809. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y. Wang and D. Morse Rampant polyuridylylation of plastid gene transcripts in the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium Nucleic Acids Res., January 24, 2006; 34(2): 613 - 619. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Klaveness, K. Shalchian-Tabrizi, H. A. Thomsen, W. Eikrem, and K. S. Jakobsen Telonema antarcticum sp. nov., a common marine phagotrophic flagellate Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, November 1, 2005; 55(6): 2595 - 2604. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. D. Palmer, D. E. Soltis, and M. W. Chase The plant tree of life: an overview and some points of view Am. J. Botany, October 1, 2004; 91(10): 1437 - 1445. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. W. Saunders and M. H. Hommersand Assessing red algal supraordinal diversity and taxonomy in the context of contemporary systematic data Am. J. Botany, October 1, 2004; 91(10): 1494 - 1507. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. A. Lewis and R. M. McCourt Green algae and the origin of land plants Am. J. Botany, October 1, 2004; 91(10): 1535 - 1556. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
