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Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism

Photosynthesis is a biochemical process essential for life, serving as the ultimate source of chemical energy for phototrophic and heterotrophic life forms. Since the machinery of the photosynthetic electron transport chain is quite complex and is unlikely to have evolved multiple independent times,...

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Autor principal: Oborník, Miroslav
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31288476
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom9070266
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author Oborník, Miroslav
author_facet Oborník, Miroslav
author_sort Oborník, Miroslav
collection PubMed
description Photosynthesis is a biochemical process essential for life, serving as the ultimate source of chemical energy for phototrophic and heterotrophic life forms. Since the machinery of the photosynthetic electron transport chain is quite complex and is unlikely to have evolved multiple independent times, it is believed that this machinery has been transferred to diverse eukaryotic organisms by endosymbiotic events involving a eukaryotic host and a phototrophic endosymbiont. Thus, photoautotrophy, as a benefit, is transmitted through the evolution of plastids. However, many eukaryotes became secondarily heterotrophic, reverting to hetero-osmotrophy, phagotrophy, or parasitism. Here, I briefly review the constructive evolution of plastid endosymbioses and the consequential switch to reductive evolution involving losses of photosynthesis and plastids and the evolution of parasitism from a photosynthetic ancestor.
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spelling pubmed-66813722019-08-09 Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism Oborník, Miroslav Biomolecules Review Photosynthesis is a biochemical process essential for life, serving as the ultimate source of chemical energy for phototrophic and heterotrophic life forms. Since the machinery of the photosynthetic electron transport chain is quite complex and is unlikely to have evolved multiple independent times, it is believed that this machinery has been transferred to diverse eukaryotic organisms by endosymbiotic events involving a eukaryotic host and a phototrophic endosymbiont. Thus, photoautotrophy, as a benefit, is transmitted through the evolution of plastids. However, many eukaryotes became secondarily heterotrophic, reverting to hetero-osmotrophy, phagotrophy, or parasitism. Here, I briefly review the constructive evolution of plastid endosymbioses and the consequential switch to reductive evolution involving losses of photosynthesis and plastids and the evolution of parasitism from a photosynthetic ancestor. MDPI 2019-07-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6681372/ /pubmed/31288476 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom9070266 Text en © 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Oborník, Miroslav
Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title_full Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title_fullStr Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title_full_unstemmed Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title_short Endosymbiotic Evolution of Algae, Secondary Heterotrophy and Parasitism
title_sort endosymbiotic evolution of algae, secondary heterotrophy and parasitism
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31288476
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom9070266
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