Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.
Biol Chem. 2020 May 26;401(6-7):811-820. doi: 10.1515/hsz-2020-0102.
Endosymbiosis, the beginning of a collaboration between an archaeon and a bacterium and a founding step in the evolution of eukaryotes, owes its success to the establishment of communication routes between the host and the symbiont to allow the exchange of metabolites. As far as lipids are concerned, it is the host that has learnt the symbiont's language, as eukaryote lipids appear to have been borrowed from the bacterial symbiont. Mitochondria exchange lipids with the rest of the cell at membrane contact sites. In fungi, the endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) is one of the best understood membrane tethering complexes. Its discovery has yielded crucial insight into the mechanisms of intracellular lipid trafficking. Despite a wealth of data, our understanding of ERMES formation and its exact role(s) remains incomplete. Here, I endeavour to summarise our knowledge on the ERMES complex and to identify lingering gaps.
内共生，即古菌与细菌之间合作的开始，也是真核生物进化的一个创始步骤，它的成功归功于在宿主和共生体之间建立了沟通途径，以允许代谢物的交换。就脂质而言，是宿主学会了共生体的语言，因为真核生物的脂质似乎是从细菌共生体借来的。线粒体在膜接触位点与细胞的其他部分交换脂质。在真菌中，内质网-线粒体相遇结构 (ERMES) 是最被理解的膜连接复合物之一。它的发现为细胞内脂质运输的机制提供了关键的见解。尽管有大量的数据，但我们对内共生体的形成及其确切作用的理解仍然不完整。在这里，我试图总结我们对内共生体复合物的了解，并确定仍然存在的差距。
