Nature 344, 262 - 265 (15 March 1990); doi:10.1038/344262a0

Evolutionary transfer of the chloroplast tufA gene to the nucleus

Sandra L. Baldauf^* & Jeffrey D. Palmer^*

Department of Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
^* Present address: Department of Biology, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.

EVOLUTIONARY gene transfer is a basic corollary of the now widely accepted endosymbiotic theory, which proposes that mitochondria and chloroplasts originated from once free-living eu bacteria¹. The small organellar chromosomes are remnants of larger bacterial genomes, with most endosymbiont genes having been either transferred to the nucleus² soon after endosymbiosis^3,4 or lost entirely, with some being functionally replaced by preexisting nuclear genes^5,6. Several lines of evidence indicate that relocation of some organelle genes could have been more recent. These include the abundance of non-functional organelle sequences of recent origin in nuclear DNA^7,8, successful artificial transfer of functional organelle genes to the nucleus⁹, and several examples of recently lost organelle genes^4,10, although none of these is known to have been replaced by a nuclear homologue that is clearly of organellar ancestry. We present gene sequence and molecular phylogenetic evidence for the transfer of the chloroplast tuf A gene to the nucleus in the green algal ancestor of land plants.

References

1.	Gray, M. W. Trends Genet. 5, 294−299 (1989). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
2.	Shih, M.-C., Lazar, G. & Goodman, H. M. Cell 47, 73−80 (1986). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
3.	Palmer, J. D. A. Rev. Genet. 19, 325−354 (1985). | Article | ISI | ChemPort |
4.	Attardi, G. & Schatz, G. A. Rev. Cell Biol. 4, 289−333 (1988). | ChemPort |
5.	Tingey, S. V., Tsai, F.-Y., Edwards, J. W., Walker, E. L. & Coruzzi, G. M. J. biol. Chem. 263, 9651−9657 (1988). | PubMed | ChemPort |
6.	Surguchov, A. P. Trends biochem. Sci. 12, 335−339 (1987). | Article |
7.	Timmis, J. N. & Scott, N. S. Nature 305, 65−67 (1983). | Article | ISI | ChemPort |
8.	Gellissen, G. & Michaelis, G. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 503, 391−401 (1988).
9.	Nagley, P. & Devenish, R. J. Trends biochem. Sci. 14, 31−35 (1989). | Article | ChemPort |
10.	Sugiura, M. A. Rev. Cell Biol. 5, 51−70 (1989). | ChemPort |
11.	Watson, J. C. & Surzycki, S. J. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 2264−2267 (1982). | ChemPort |
12.	Montandon, P.-E. & Stutz, E. Nucleic Acids Res. 11, 5877−5891 (1983). | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
13.	Ohyama, K. et al. Nature 322, 572−574 (1986). | Article | ISI | ChemPort |
14.	Keegstra, K. & Olsen, L. J. A. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant molec. Biol. 40, 471−501 (1989). | ChemPort |
15.	Meng, B. Y., Shinozaki, K. & Sugiura, M. Molec. gen. Genet. 216, 25−30 (1989). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
16.	Yokota, T., Sugisaki, H., Takanami, M. & Kaziro, Y. Gene 12, 25−31 (1980). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
17.	Tobin, E. M. & Silverthorne, J. A Rev. Plant Physiol. 36, 569−593 (1985). | ChemPort |
18.	Watson, J. C. & Surzycki, S. J. Curr. Genet. 7, 201−210 (1983). | Article | ChemPort |
19.	Silk, G. W. & Wu, M. Curr. Genet. 14, 119−126 (1988). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
20.	Bremer, K., Humphries, C. J., Mishler, B. D. & Churchill, S. P. Taxon 36, 339−349 (1987).
21.	Stewart, W. N. Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants (Cambridge University Press, 1984).
22.	Douglas, S. E. & Durnford, D. G. Plant molec. Biol. 13, 13−20 (1989). | ChemPort |
23.	van den Boogaart, P., Samallo, J. & Agsteribbe, E. Nature 298, 187−189 (1982). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
24.	Watson, J. C. & Thompson, W. F. Meth. Enzym. 118, 57−75 (1986). | ChemPort |
25.	Palmer, J. D. Meth. Enzym. 118, 167−186 (1986). | ChemPort |
26.	Maniatis, T., Fritsch, E. F. & Sambrook, J. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1982).
27.	Henikoff, S. Gene 28, 351−359 (1984). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
28.	Lizardi, P. M. Meth. Enzym. 96, 24−38 (1983). | PubMed | ChemPort |
29.	Jost, J.-P. & Pehling, G. Eur. J. Biochem. 66, 339−346 (1976). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
30.	Axelos, M. et al. Molec. gen. Genet. 219, 106−112 (1989). | PubMed | ChemPort |
31.	Lenstra, J. A., Van Vliet, A., Arnberg, A. C., Van Hemert, F. J. & Moller, W. Eur. J. Biochem. 155, 475−483 (1986). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
32.	Walldorf, U., Hovemann, B. & Bautz, E. K. F. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 82, 5795−5799 (1985). | ChemPort |
33.	Lechner, K. & Bock, A. Molec. gen. Genet. 208, 523−528 (1987). | Article | ChemPort |
34.	Nagata, S., Tsunetsugu-Yokota, Y., Naito, A. & Kaziro, Y. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 6192−6196 (1983). | ChemPort |
35.	Nagata, S. et al. EMBO J. 3, 1825−1830 (1984). | PubMed | ChemPort |
36.	Seidler, L., Peter, M., Meissner, F. & Sprinzl, M. Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 9263−9277 (1987). | PubMed | ChemPort |
37.	Feng, D.-F. & Doolittle, R. F. J. molec. Evol. 25, 351−360 (1987). | PubMed | ChemPort |