2021/05/21 by Timothy G. Stephens, Arwa Gabr, Victoria Calatrava +2 · 1 citation
Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Medical and Biological Ozone Research #Legionella and Acanthamoeba research #Antifungal resistance and susceptibility #Endosymbiosis #Primary (astronomy) #Biology #Evolutionary biology #Plastid #Genetics #Chloroplast #Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/nph.17478
openalex publication_date 2021/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Endosymbiosis is a relationship between two organisms wherein one cell resides inside the other. This affiliation, when stable and beneficial for the 'host' cell, can result in massive genetic innovation with the foremost examples being the evolution of eukaryotic organelles, the mitochondria and plastids. Despite its critical evolutionary role, there is limited knowledge about how endosymbiosis is initially established and how host-endosymbiont biology is integrated. Here, we explore this issue, using as our model the rhizarian amoeba Paulinella, which represents an independent case of primary plastid origin that occurred c. 120 million yr ago. We propose the 'chassis and engine' model that provides a theoretical framework for understanding primary plastid endosymbiosis, potentially explaining why it is so rare.