Gene transfer from bacteria and archaea facilitated evolution of an extremophilic eukaryote
08.03.2013
Schönknecht G, Chen WH, Ternes CM, Barbier GG, Shrestha RP, Stanke M, Bräutigam A, Baker BJ, Banfield JF, Garavito RM, Carr K, Wilkerson C, Rensing SA, Gagneul D, Dickenson NE, Oesterhelt C, Lercher MJ, Weber AP.
Science. 2013;339(6124):1207-10.
The extremophilic red alga Galdieria sulphuraria lives in hot, toxic metal-rich, acidic environments. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of adaptation, we sequenced the 13.7-megabase genome. This alga shows an enormous metabolic flexibility, growing either photoautotrophically or heterotrophically on more than 50 carbon sources. Environmental adaptation seems to have been facilitated by horizontal gene transfer from various bacteria and archaea, often followed by gene family expansion.
