Endosymbiosis: Did Plastids Evolve from a Freshwater Cyanobacterium?

Jan de Vries; John M Archibald

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.006

Endosymbiosis: Did Plastids Evolve from a Freshwater Cyanobacterium?

Curr Biol. 2017 Feb 6;27(3):R103-R105. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.006.

Authors

Jan de Vries¹, John M Archibald²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
² Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; Program in Integrated Microbial Biodiversity, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: john.archibald@dal.ca.

PMID: 28171752
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.006

Abstract

Photosynthetic eukaryotes are the product of an endosymbiotic event between a eukaryotic host and a cyanobacterium that became today's plastid. A new phylogenomic study suggests that the closest relative of plastids among extant cyanobacteria is the recently discovered freshwater-dwelling Gloeomargarita lithophora.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Biological Evolution
Cyanobacteria*
Fresh Water
Phylogeny
Plastids
Symbiosis*