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Understanding the evolution of endosymbiotic organelles based on the targeting sequences of organellar proteins
Author(s) -
Lee Dong Wook,
Hwang Inhwan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.17167
Subject(s) - biology , organelle , chloroplast , protein targeting , plastid , evolutionary biology , mitochondrion , phylogenetic tree , endosymbiosis , phylogenetics , genome , eukaryotic cell , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene , membrane protein , membrane
Summary Organellogenesis, a key aspect of eukaryotic cell evolution, critically depends on the successful establishment of organellar protein import mechanisms. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the evolution of the two endosymbiotic organelles, the mitochondrion and the chloroplast, is thought to have occurred at time periods far from each other. Despite this, chloroplasts and mitochondria have highly similar protein import mechanisms. This raises intriguing questions such as what underlies such similarity in the import mechanisms and how these similar mechanisms have evolved. In this review, we summarise the recent findings regarding sorting and specific targeting of these organellar proteins. Based on these findings, we propose possible evolutionary scenarios regarding how the signal sequences of chloroplasts and mitochondrial proteins ended up having such relationship.