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Archaea

A road to eukaryotes?

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 8, pages 246–247 (2010)Cite this article

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I. hospitalis differs from other archaea in that it possesses an outer membrane and a periplasmic space, which is larger than the cytoplasm. To investigate the role of the outer membrane, the authors examined the localization of the A1A0-ATPase (the archaeal functional equivalent of the F1F0-ATPase from bacteria), which they detected primarily in the outer membrane. As this ATPase synthesizes ATP using a proton gradient across a membrane, this finding implies that the outer membrane of I. hospitalis is charged and that ATP is generated in the periplasm. The authors therefore speculate that many of the cellular reactions that require ATP take place in the periplasm. These findings also suggest that the genetic information (which is found in the cytoplasm) and ATP production are separated in this organism. This is unlike any other bacteria or archaea — in which ATP synthesis occurs in the compartment containing DNA and not in the periplasm — but similar to eukaryotes. Furthermore, the H2–sulphur oxidoreductase complex, which generates the ion gradient that is used for ATP synthesis, was also detected in the outer membrane.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Küper, U., Meyer, C., Müller, V., Rachel, R. & Huber, H. Energized outer membrane and spatial separation of metabolic processes in the hyperthermophilic Archaeon Ignicoccus hospitalis. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 3152–3156 (2010)

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  1. Christiaan van Ooij
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van Ooij, C. A road to eukaryotes?. Nat Rev Microbiol 8, 246–247 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2339

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