Affiliations: 1 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
2 Department of Parasitology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Keywords:
amitochondriate, iron-sulphur cluster synthesis, mitochondrion, mitochondrion-related organelles, Monocercomonoides sp.
Corresponding Author(s):
Anna Karnkowska, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia; Canada V6T 1Z4 ankarn@biol.uw.edu.pl
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Anna Karnkowska and Vladimir Hampl (2016). The curious case of vanishing mitochondria. Microbial Cell 3(10): 491-494. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.10.531
© 2016 Karnkowska and Hampl. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
The curious case of vanishing mitochondria
Authors:Anna Karnkowska1 and Vladimír Hampl2
doi: 10.15698/mic2016.10.531
Volume 3, pp. 491 to 494, published 30/09/2016.
1 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
2 Department of Parasitology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Keywords:
amitochondriate, iron-sulphur cluster synthesis, mitochondrion, mitochondrion-related organelles, Monocercomonoides sp.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Anna Karnkowska and Vladimir Hampl (2016). The curious case of vanishing mitochondria. Microbial Cell 3(10): 491-494. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.10.531
© 2016 Karnkowska and Hampl. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Due to their involvement in the energy metabolism, mitochondria are essential for most eukaryotic cells. Microbial eukaryotes living in low oxygen environments possess reduced forms of mitochondria, namely mitochondrion-related organelles (MROs). These do not produce ATP by oxidative phosphorylation on their membranes and some do not produce ATP at all. Still, they are indispensable because of other essential functions such as iron-sulphur (Fe-S) cluster assembly. Recently, the first microbial eukaryote with neither mitochondrion nor MRO was characterized – Monocercomonoides sp. Genome and transcriptome sequencing of Monocercomonoides revealed that it lacks all hallmark mitochondrial proteins. Crucially, the essential mitochondrial pathway for the Fe-S cluster assembly (ISC) was replaced by a bacterial sulphur mobilization (SUF) system. The discovery of such bona fide amitochondriate eukaryote broadens our knowledge about the diversity and plasticity of eukaryotic cells and provides a substantial contribution to our understanding of eukaryotic cell evolution.