ja9b08290_si_001.pdf (619.32 kB)
Toward a Synthetic Yeast Endosymbiont with a Minimal Genome
journal contribution
posted on 2019-08-24, 13:29 authored by Angad
P. Mehta, Yeonjin Ko, Lubica Supekova, Kersi Pestonjamasp, Jack Li, Peter G. SchultzBased on the endosymbiotic theory,
one of the key events that occurred
during mitochondrial evolution was an extensive loss of nonessential
genes from the protomitochondrial endosymbiont genome and transfer
of some of the essential endosymbiont genes to the host nucleus. We
have developed an approach to recapitulate various aspects of endosymbiont
genome minimization using a synthetic system consisting of Escherichia coli endosymbionts within host yeast
cells. As a first step, we identified a number of E.
coli auxotrophs of central metabolites that can form
viable endosymbionts within yeast cells. These studies provide a platform
to identify nonessential biosynthetic pathways that can be deleted
in the E. coli endosymbionts to investigate
the evolutionary adaptations in the host and endosymbiont during the
evolution of mitochondria.