Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne, le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 7283, Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée, Aix-Marseille Université, 31 chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13009 Marseille, France.
Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, 43 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2015 May;13(5):318-26. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3431.
Studying the evolution of macromolecular assemblies is important to improve our understanding of how complex cellular structures evolved, and to identify the functional building blocks that are involved. Recent studies suggest that the macromolecular complexes that are involved in two distinct processes in Myxococcus xanthus - surface motility and sporulation - are derived from an ancestral polysaccharide capsule assembly system. In this Opinion article, we argue that the available data suggest that the motility machinery evolved from this capsule assembly system following a gene duplication event, a change in carbohydrate polymer specificity and the acquisition of additional proteins by the motility complex, all of which are key features that distinguish the motility and sporulation systems. Furthermore, the presence of intermediates of these systems in bacterial genomes suggests a testable evolutionary model for their emergence and spread.
研究大分子组装体的进化对于提高我们对复杂细胞结构如何进化的理解，以及识别参与其中的功能构建块非常重要。最近的研究表明，参与粘球菌中两个不同过程（表面运动和孢子形成）的大分子复合物源自一个祖先多糖胶囊组装系统。在这篇观点文章中，我们认为现有数据表明，运动机制是在基因复制事件、碳水化合物聚合物特异性变化以及运动复合物获得额外蛋白质之后，从这个胶囊组装系统进化而来的，所有这些都是区分运动和孢子形成系统的关键特征。此外，细菌基因组中这些系统的中间产物的存在为它们的出现和传播提供了一个可测试的进化模型。
