Bacterial gene import and mesophilic adaptation in archaea

Purificación López-García (1) , Yvan Zivanovic (2, 3) , Philippe Deschamps (1) , David Moreira (1)

1 ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution
2 RBA - Radiorésistance des bactéries et des archées
3 IGM - Institut de génétique et microbiologie [Orsay]

It is widely believed that the archaeal ancestor was hyperthermophilic, but during archaeal evolution, several lineages - including haloarchaea and their sister methanogens, the Thaumarchaeota, and the uncultured Marine Group II and Marine Group III Euryarchaeota (MGII/III) - independently adapted to lower temperatures. Recent phylogenomic studies suggest that the ancestors of these lineages were recipients of massive horizontal gene transfer from bacteria. Many of the acquired genes, which are often involved in metabolism and cell envelope biogenesis, were convergently acquired by distant mesophilic archaea. In this Opinion article, we explore the intriguing hypothesis that the import of these bacterial genes was crucial for the adaptation of archaea to mesophilic lifestyles.

Mots clés: skin ageing; skin photoexposure; TGF-β; TGF-β inducible early gene-1; oxidative stress

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Purificación López-García, Yvan Zivanovic, Philippe Deschamps, David Moreira. Bacterial gene import and mesophilic adaptation in archaea. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2015, 13 (7), pp.447 - 456. ⟨10.1038/nrmicro3485⟩. ⟨hal-01438307⟩