Alveolate Explained

The alveolates (meaning "pitted like a honeycomb")[1] are a group of protists, considered a major clade[2] and superphylum[3] within Eukarya. They are currently grouped with the stramenopiles and Rhizaria among the protists with tubulocristate mitochondria into the SAR supergroup.

Characteristics

The most notable shared characteristic is the presence of cortical (near the surface) alveoli (sacs). These are flattened vesicles (sacs) arranged as a layer just under the membrane and supporting it, typically contributing to a flexible pellicle (thin skin). In armored dinoflagellates they may contain stiff plates. Alveolates have mitochondria with tubular cristae (invaginations), and cells often have pore-like intrusions through the cell surface. The group contains free-living and parasitic organisms, predatory flagellates, and photosynthetic organisms.

Almost all sequenced mitochondrial genomes of ciliates and apicomplexa are linear.[4] The mitochondria almost all carry mtDNA of their own but with greatly reduced genome sizes. Exceptions are Cryptosporidium which are left with only a mitosome, the circular mitochondrial genomes of Acavomonas and Babesia microti,[5] [6] and Toxoplasmas highly fragmented mitochondrial genome, consisting of 21 sequence blocks which recombine to produce longer segments.[7] [8]

History

The relationship of apicomplexa, dinoflagellates and ciliates had been suggested during the 1980s, and this was confirmed in the early 1990s by comparisons of ribosomal RNA sequences, most notably by Gajadhar et al.[9] Cavalier-Smith introduced the formal name Alveolata in 1991,[10] although at the time he considered the grouping to be a paraphyletic assemblage. Many biologists prefer the use of the colloquial name 'alveolate'.[11]

Classification

Alveolata include around nine major and minor groups. They are diverse in form, and are known to be related by various ultrastructural and genetic similarities:[12]

The Acavomonidia and Colponemidia were previously grouped together as colponemids, a taxon now split because each has a distinctive organization or ultrastructural identity. The Acavomonidia are closer to the dinoflagellate/perkinsid group than the Colponemidia are.[12] As such, the informal term "colponemids", as it stands currently, covers two non-sister groups within Alveolata: the Acavomonidia and the Colponemidia.[12]

The Apicomplexa and dinoflagellates may be more closely related to each other than to the ciliates. Both have plastids, and most share a bundle or cone of microtubules at the top of the cell. In apicomplexans this forms part of a complex used to enter host cells, while in some colorless dinoflagellates it forms a peduncle used to ingest prey. Various other genera are closely related to these two groups, mostly flagellates with a similar apical structure. These include free-living members in Oxyrrhis and Colponema, and parasites in Perkinsus,[13] Parvilucifera, Rastrimonas and the ellobiopsids. In 2001, direct amplification of the rRNA gene in marine picoplankton samples revealed the presence of two novel alveolate lineages, called group I and II.[14] [15] Group I has no cultivated relatives, while group II is related to the dinoflagellate parasite Amoebophrya, which was classified until now in the Syndiniales dinoflagellate order.

Some studies suggested the haplosporids, mostly parasites of marine invertebrates, might belong here, but they lack alveoli and are now placed among the Cercozoa.

The ellobiopsids are of uncertain relation within the alveolates. Silberman et al 2004 establish that the Thalassomyces genus of ellobiopsids are alveolates using phylogenetic analysis, however no more certainty exists on their place.[16] [17]

Phylogeny

In 2017, Thomas Cavalier-Smith described the phylogeny of the Alveolata as follows:[18]

Taxonomy

Alveolata Cavalier-Smith 1991 [Alveolatobiontes]

Development

The development of plastids among the alveolates is intriguing. Cavalier-Smith proposed the alveolates developed from a chloroplast-containing ancestor, which also gave rise to the Chromista (the chromalveolate hypothesis). Other researchers have speculated that the alveolates originally lacked plastids and possibly the dinoflagellates and Apicomplexa acquired them separately. However, it now appears that the alveolates, the dinoflagellates, the Chromerida and the heterokont algae acquired their plastids from a red alga with evidence of a common origin of this organelle in all these four clades.[19]

Evolution

A Bayesian estimate places the evolution of the alveolate group at ~.[20] The Alveolata consist of Myzozoa, Ciliates, and Colponemids. In other words, the term Myzozoa, meaning "to siphon the contents from prey", may be applied informally to the common ancestor of the subset of alveolates that are neither ciliates nor colponemids. Predation upon algae is an important driver in alveolate evolution, as it can provide sources for endosymbiosis of novel plastids. The term Myzozoa is therefore a handy concept for tracking the history of the alveolate phylum.

The ancestors of the alveolate group may have been photosynthetic.[21] The ancestral alveolate probably possessed a plastid. Chromerids, apicomplexans, and peridinin dinoflagellates have retained this organelle.[22] Going one step even further back, the chromerids, the peridinin dinoflagellates and the heterokont algae have been argued to possess a monophyletic plastid lineage in common, i.e. acquired their plastids from a red alga,[19] and so it seems likely that the common ancestor of alveolates and heterokonts was also photosynthetic.

In one school of thought the common ancestor of the dinoflagellates, apicomplexans, Colpodella, Chromerida, and Voromonas was a myzocytotic predator with two heterodynamic flagella, micropores, trichocysts, rhoptries, micronemes, a polar ring and a coiled open sided conoid.[23] While the common ancestor of alveolates may also have possessed some of these characteristics, it has been argued that Myzocytosis was not one of these characteristics, as ciliates ingest prey by a different mechanism.[12]

An ongoing debate concerns the number of membranes surrounding the plastid across apicomplexans and certain dinoflagellates, and the origin of these membranes. This ultrastructural character can be used to group organisms and if the character is in common, it can imply that phyla had a common photosynthetic ancestor. On the basis that apicomplexans possess a plastid surrounded by four membranes, and that peridinin dinoflagellates possess a plastid surrounded by three membranes, Petersen et al.[24] have been unable to rule out that the shared stramenopile-alveolate plastid could have been recycled multiple times in the alveolate phylum, the source being stramenopile-alveolate donors, through the mechanism of ingestion and endosymbiosis.

Ciliates are a model alveolate, having been genetically studied in great depth over the longest period of any alveolate lineage. They are unusual among eukaryotes in that reproduction involves a micronucleus and a macronucleus. Their reproduction is easily studied in the lab, and made them a model eukaryote historically. Being entirely predatory and lacking any remnant plastid, their development as a phylum illustrates how predation and autotrophy[21] are in dynamic balance and that the balance can swing one way or other at the point of origin of a new phylum from mixotrophic ancestors, causing one ability to be lost.

Epigenetics

Few algae have been studied for epigenetics. Those for which epigenetic data are available include some algal alveolates.[25]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: alveolate . Memidex (WordNet) Dictionary/Thesaurus . 2011-01-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160411233722/http://www.memidex.com/alveolate . 2016-04-11 . dead .
  2. Adl . S.M. . etal . 2012 . The revised classification of eukaryotes . Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology . 59 . 5. 429–514 . 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2012.00644.x . 23020233 . 3483872.
  3. Ruggiero MA, Gordon DP, Orrell TM, Bailly N, Bourgoin T, Brusca RC, Cavalier-Smith T, Guiry MD, Kirk PM . A higher level classification of all living organisms . PLOS ONE . 10 . 4 . e0119248 . 2015 . 25923521 . 4418965 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0119248 . 2015PLoSO..1019248R . free .
  4. Barth . D . Berendonk . TU . 2011 . The mitochondrial genome sequence of the ciliate Paramecium caudatum reveals a shift in nucleotide composition and codon usage within the genus Paramecium . BMC Genomics . 12 . 272 . 10.1186/1471-2164-12-272 . 3118789 . 21627782 . free.
  5. Oborník . Miroslav . Lukeš . Julius . 2015-10-15 . The Organellar Genomes of Chromera and Vitrella, the Phototrophic Relatives of Apicomplexan Parasites . Annual Review of Microbiology . 69 . 129–144 . 10.1146/annurev-micro-091014-104449 . 0066-4227 . 26092225 . 2024-04-15.
  6. Cornillot E, Hadj-Kaddour K, Dassouli A, Noel B, Ranwez V, Vacherie B, Augagneur Y, Brès V, Duclos A, Randazzo S, Carcy B, Debierre-Grockiego F, Delbecq S, Moubri-Ménage K, Shams-Eldin H, Usmani-Brown S, Bringaud F, Wincker P, Vivarès CP, Schwarz RT, Schetters TP, Krause PJ, Gorenflot A, Berry V, Barbe V, Ben Mamoun C . 2012 . Sequencing of the smallest Apicomplexan genome from the human pathogen Babesia microti . Nucleic Acids Res. . 40 . 18 . 9102–14 . 10.1093/nar/gks700 . 3467087 . 22833609.
  7. Namasivayam . Sivaranjani . Baptista . Rodrigo P. . Xiao . Wenyuan . Hall . Erica M. . Doggett . Joseph S. . Troell . Karin . Kissinger . Jessica C. . May 2021 . A novel fragmented mitochondrial genome in the protist pathogen Toxoplasma gondii and related tissue coccidia . Genome Research . 31 . 5 . 852–865 . 10.1101/gr.266403.120 . 8092004 . 33906963.
  8. Namasivayam . Sivaranjani . Sun . Cheng . Bah . Assiatu B. . Oberstaller . Jenna . Pierre-Louis . Edwin . Etheridge . Ronald Drew . Feschotte . Cedric . Pritham . Ellen J. . Kissinger . Jessica C. . 2023-11-07 . Massive invasion of organellar DNA drives nuclear genome evolution in Toxoplasma . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 120 . 45 . –2308569120 . 2023PNAS..12008569N . 10.1073/pnas.2308569120 . 10636329 . 37917792 .
  9. Gajadhar, A. A.. Ribosomal RNA sequences of Sarcocystis muris, Theilera annulata, and Crypthecodinium cohnii reveal evolutionary relationships among apicomplexans, dinoflagellates, and ciliates. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 1991 . 45 . 1. 147–153 . 10.1016/0166-6851(91)90036-6. 1904987. etal. .
  10. Book: Cavalier-Smith, T. . Cell diversification in heterotrophic flagellates . 113–131 . David J. . Patterson . Jacob . Larsen . Systematics Association . The Biology of free-living heterotrophic flagellates . https://books.google.com/books?id=-JUWAQAAIAAJ . 1991 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-857747-8.
  11. Kumar, S. & Rzhetsky, A. 1996. Evolutionary relationships of eukaryotic kingdoms. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 42: 183–193
  12. 10.1371/journal.pone.0095467 . 24740116 . 3989336 . 9 . 4 . Description of Colponema vietnamica sp.n. and Acavomonas peruviana n. gen. n. sp., two new alveolate phyla (Colponemidia nom. nov. and Acavomonidia nom. nov.) and their contributions to reconstructing the ancestral state of alveolates and eukaryotes . 2014 . PLOS ONE . e95467 . Tikhonenkov . DV . Janouškovec . J . Mylnikov . AP . Mikhailov . KV . Simdyanov . TG . Aleoshin . VV . Keeling . PJ. 2014PLoSO...995467T . free .
  13. Zhang . H . Campbell . DA . Sturm . NR . Dungan . CF . Lin . S . 2011 . Spliced leader RNAs, mitochondrial gene frameshifts and multi-protein phylogeny expand support for the genus Perkinsus as a unique group of Alveolates . PLOS ONE . 6 . 5. e19933 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0019933 . 21629701 . 3101222. 2011PLoSO...619933Z . free .
  14. López-García P, Rodríguez-Valera F, Pedrós-Alió C, Moreira D . Unexpected diversity of small eukaryotes in deep-sea Antarctic plankton . Nature . 409 . 6820 . 603–7 . 2001 . 11214316 . 10.1038/35054537 . 2001Natur.409..603L . 11550698 .
  15. Moon-van der Staay SY, De Wachter R, Vaulot D . Oceanic 18S rDNA sequences from picoplankton reveal unsuspected eukaryotic diversity . Nature . 409 . 6820 . 607–10 . 2001 . 11214317 . 10.1038/35054541 . 2001Natur.409..607M . 4362835 .
  16. Hoppenrath . Mona . Dinoflagellate taxonomy — a review and proposal of a revised classification . . Senckenberg Institute (Springer) . 47 . 2 . 2016-04-29 . 1867-1616 . 10.1007/s12526-016-0471-8 . 381–403. 2024-05-03 . 42100119 .
  17. Taylor . F. J. R. "Max" . Illumination or confusion? Dinoflagellate molecular phylogenetic data viewed from a primarily morphological standpoint . . Japanese Society of Phycology (Wiley) . 52 . 4 . 2004 . 1322-0829 . 10.1111/j.1440-183.2004.00360.x . 308–324. 86797666 .
  18. Cavalier-Smith . Thomas . 5 September 2017 . Kingdom Chromista and its eight phyla: a new synthesis emphasising periplastid protein targeting, cytoskeletal and periplastid evolution, and ancient divergences . Protoplasma . 297–357 . 10.1007/s00709-017-1147-3 . 28875267 . 5756292 . 255 . 1. 2024-05-03 .
  19. Janouskovec . J . Horák . A . Oborník . M . Lukes . J . Keeling . PJ . 2010 . A common red algal origin of the apicomplexan, dinoflagellate, and heterokont plastids . Proc Natl Acad Sci USA . 107 . 24. 10949–54 . 10.1073/pnas.1003335107 . 20534454 . 2890776. 2010PNAS..10710949J . free .
  20. Berney . C . Pawlowski . J . 2006 . A molecular time-scale for eukaryote evolution recalibrated with the continuous microfossil record . Proc Biol Sci . 273 . 1596. 1867–72 . 10.1098/rspb.2006.3537. 1634798 . 16822745.
  21. Reyes-Prieto. A. Moustafa. A. Bhattacharya. D. Multiple genes of apparent algal origin suggest ciliates may once have been photosynthetic.. Curr. Biol.. 2008. 18. 13. 956–62. 10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.042. 18595706. 2577054. 2008CBio...18..956R.
  22. Moore RB, Oborník M, Janouskovec J, Chrudimský T, Vancová M, Green DH, Wright SW, Davies NW, Bolch CJ, Heimann K, Slapeta J, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Logsdon JM, Carter DA . A photosynthetic alveolate closely related to apicomplexan parasites . Nature . 451 . 7181 . 959–963 . 2008 . 18288187 . 10.1038/nature06635 . 2008Natur.451..959M . 28005870 .
  23. Kuvardina . ON . Leander . BS . Aleshin . VV . Myl'nikov . AP . Keeling . PJ . Simdyanov . TG . 2002 . The phylogeny of colpodellids (Alveolata) using small subunit rRNA gene sequences suggests they are the free living sister group to apicomplexans . J Eukaryot Microbiol . 49 . 6. 498–504 . 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2002.tb00235.x . 12503687. colpodellid . 4283969 .
  24. Petersen J, Ludewig AK, Michael V, Bunk B, Jarek M, Baurain D, Brinkmann H . Chromera velia, endosymbioses and the rhodoplex hypothesis—plastid evolution in cryptophytes, alveolates, stramenopiles, and haptophytes (CASH lineages) . Genome Biol Evol . 6 . 3 . 666–684 . 2014 . 24572015 . 3971594 . 10.1093/gbe/evu043 .
  25. Book: 2023. Wiley. 10.1002/9781119821946. 383–411. Epigenetics in Aquaculture . 10261/191758 . 978-1-119-82191-5 . Piferrer . Wang . Francesc . Han-Ping .

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