| Differential gene transfers and gene duplications in primary and secondary endosymbioses (2006) | |||||||||||
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| Abstract Background Most genes introduced into phototrophic eukaryotes during the process of endosymbiosis are either lost or relocated into the host nuclear genome. In contrast, gro EL homologues are found in different genome compartments among phototrophic eukaryotes. Comparative sequence analyses of recently available genome data, have allowed us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of these genes and propose a hypothesis that explains the unusual genome distribution of gro EL homologues. Results Our analyses indicate that while two distinct gro EL genes were introduced into eukaryotes by a progenitor of plastids, these particular homologues have not been maintained in all evolutionary lineages. This is of significant interest, because two chaperone proteins always co-occur in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. We infer strikingly different lineage specific processes of evolution involving deletion, duplication and targeting of gro EL proteins. Conclusion The requirement of two gro EL homologues for chaperon function in phototrophs has provided a constraint that has shaped convergent evolutionary scenarios in divergent evolutionary lineages. G ro EL provides a general evolutionary model for studying gene transfers and convergent evolutionary processes among eukaryotic lineages. | |||||||||||
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