Cotton, James A. and McInerney, James O. (2010) Eukaryotic genes of archaebacterial origin are more important than the more numerous eubacterial genes, irrespective of function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 107 (40). pp. 17252-17255. ISSN 1091-6490

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Abstract

The traditional tree of life shows eukaryotes as a distinct lineage of living things, but many studies have suggested that the first eukaryotic cells were chimeric, descended from both Eubacteria (through the mitochondrion) and Archaebacteria. Eukaryote nuclei thus contain genes of both eubacterial and archaebacterial origins, and these genes have different functions within eukaryotic cells. Here we report that archaebacterium-derived genes are significantly more likely to be essential to yeast viability, are more highly expressed, and are significantly more highly connected and more central in the yeast protein interaction network. These findings hold irrespective of whether the genes have an informational or operational function, so that many features of eukaryotic genes with prokaryotic homologs can be explained by their origin, rather than their function. Taken together, our results show that genes of archaebacterial origin are in some senses more important to yeast metabolism than genes of eubacterial origin. This importance reflects these genes’ origin as the ancestral nuclear component of the eukaryotic genome.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The definitive version of this article is available at PNAS October 5, 2010 vol. 107 no. 40 17252-17255 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000265107
Keywords:	endosymbiosis; gene essentiality; eukaryote origin; protein interaction network;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Biology
Item ID:	3788
Depositing User:	Dr. James McInerney
Date Deposited:	04 Jul 2012 15:25
Journal or Publication Title:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher:	National Academy of Sciences
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.pnas.org/
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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