Abstract

The eukaryotic organelles mitochondrion and plastid originated from eubacterial endosymbionts. Here we propose that, in both cases, prokaryote-to-organelle conversion was driven by the internalization of host-encoded factors progressing from the outer membrane of the endosymbionts towards the intermembrane space, inner membrane and finally the organelle interior. This was made possible by an outside-to-inside establishment in the endosymbionts of host-controlled protein-sorting components, which enabled the gradual integration of organelle functions into the nuclear genome. Such a convergent trajectory for mitochondrion and plastid establishment suggests a novel paradigm for organelle evolution that affects theories of eukaryogenesis.

Author affiliations

1. Jeferson Gross and Debashish Bhattacharya are at the Department of Biology and the Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics, University of Iowa, 446 Biology Building, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.

Correspondence to: Debashish Bhattacharya¹ Email: debashi-bhattacharya@uiowa.edu

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