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Site-and-branch-heterogeneous analyses of an expanded dataset favour mitochondria as sister to known Alphaproteobacteria

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 253–262 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Determining the phylogenetic origin of mitochondria is key to understanding the ancestral mitochondrial symbiosis and its role in eukaryogenesis. However, the precise evolutionary relationship between mitochondria and their closest bacterial relatives remains hotly debated. The reasons include pervasive phylogenetic artefacts as well as limited protein and taxon sampling. Here we developed a new model of protein evolution that accommodates both across-site and across-branch compositional heterogeneity. We applied this site-and-branch-heterogeneous model (MAM60 + GFmix) to a considerably expanded dataset that comprises 108 mitochondrial proteins of alphaproteobacterial origin, and novel metagenome-assembled genomes from microbial mats, microbialites and sediments. The MAM60 + GFmix model fits the data much better and agrees with analyses of compositionally homogenized datasets with conventional site-heterogenous models. The consilience of evidence thus suggests that mitochondria are sister to the Alphaproteobacteria to the exclusion of MarineProteo1 and Magnetococcia. We also show that the ancestral presence of the crista-developing mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (a mitofilin-domain-containing Mic60 protein) in mitochondria and the Alphaproteobacteria only supports their close relationship.

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Fig. 1: An expanded protein set and novel alphaproteobacterial MAGs from diverse environments.
Fig. 2: Phylogenetic trees of the Alphaproteobacteria and mitochondria from site-heterogenous analyses of untreated and compositionally homogenized datasets through site removal.
Fig. 3: Branch support variation for the placement of mitochondria outside of the Alphaproteobacteria throughout the progressive removal of compositionally heterogenous sites.
Fig. 4: Support by the site-and-branch-heterogeneous MAM60 + GFmix model for several alterative placements of mitochondria relative to the Alphaproteobacteria.

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Data availability

Sequencing data are deposited in NCBI GenBank under the BioProjects PRJNA315555, PRJNA438773, PRJNA754110, PRJNA754380, PRJNA752523 and PRJNA703749. Novel alphaproteobacterial MAGs and protein files (unaligned, aligned, and aligned and trimmed) are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14355845. Datasets and phylogenetic trees inferred in this study are available at https://doi.org/10.17632/dnbdzmjjkp.1.

Code availability

The GFmix model software is available at: https://www.mathstat.dal.ca/~tsusko/software.html

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Acknowledgements

S.A.M.-G. is supported by an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship (ALTF 21-2020). We thank B. Curtis (Dalhousie University) and D. Salas-Leiva (Dalhousie University) for assistance with scripts, W. Valencia (Harvard University) and C. Calderon (Rutgers University) for advice on Python and R, and A. Gutiérrez-Preciado (Université Paris-Saclay) for assistance with uploading data to NCBI GenBank. This work was supported by the Moore-Simons Project on the Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell, Simons Foundation grants 735923LPI (https://doi.org/10.46714/735923LPI) awarded to A.J.R. and GBMF9739 (https://doi.org/10.37807/GBMF9739) awarded to P.L.G., and Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awarded to A.J.R., E.S. and C.H.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecologie Systématique Evolution, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech, Orsay, France

    Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez, Laura Eme, David Moreira & Purificación López-García

  2. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Edward Susko

  3. Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Kelsey Williamson, Claudio H. Slamovits & Andrew J. Roger

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  1. Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez
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Contributions

S.A.M.-G.: conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, project administration, funding acquisition. E.S.: methodology, software, writing—review and editing. K.W.: validation, data curation, writing—review and editing. L.E.: resources, writing—review and editing. C.H.S.: resources, supervision, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. D.M.: resources, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. P.L.-G.: resources, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. A.J.R.: conceptualization, methodology, validation, resources, supervision, project administration, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez or Andrew J. Roger.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Euler diagram that shows the relationships between recent phylogenomic sets of proteins used to address the phylogenetic placement of mitochondria.

Datasets include those comprised of mitochondrion- and nucleus-encoded proteins in the studies Wang and Wu 20, Martijn et al. 11, and this study. Nucleus-encoded proteins are in green, mitochondrion-encoded proteins in red, and both nucleus- and mitochondrion-encoded proteins in blue. Gene/protein names mostly follow the human gene nomenclature.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Summary of features for novel MAGs that belong to the MarineProteo1 clade and the Rickettsiales.

Branches highlighted in red show taxa used for phylogenetic analyses in this study. The dashed rectangle points to the secondary higher G + C% content of the genera Anaplasma and Neorickettsia in the family Anaplasmataceae. The Magnetococcia is at the base of the tree as an outgroup.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Branch support variation for the placement of mitochondria outside of the Alphaproteobacteria throughout the progressive removal of compositionally heterogenous sites.

Branch support values are SH-aLRT and UFBoot2+NNI and the removal of compositionally heterogeneous sites was done according to the ɀ and χ2 metrics. Support for the branch that groups mitochondria with all alphaproteobacteria (but excludes MarineProteo1 and the Magnetococcia) is always maximal (i.e., 100% SH-aLRT /100% UFBoot2+NNI). (a) Nucleus-encoded protein dataset. (b) Mitochondrion-encoded protein M1 dataset. (c) Mitochondrion-encoded protein M2 dataset.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Branch support variation for the placement of mitochondria when derived and compositionally biased Rickettsiales are included throughout the progressive removal of compositionally heterogenous sites.

Branch support values are SH-aLRT and UFBoot2+NNI and the removal of compositionally heterogeneous sites was done according to the ɀ and χ2 metrics. (a) Alphaproteobacteria-sister topology. Support for the branch that groups mitochondria with all alphaproteobacteria (but excludes MarineProteo1 and the Magnetococcia) is always maximal (i.e., 100% SH-aLRT /100% UFBoot2+NNI). (b) Rickettsiales-sister topology.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Schematic tree topologies used for calculating likelihood values using the MAM60 + GFmix model.

(a) Tree topologies derived from analyses of the untreated dataset of mitochondrion-, and nucleus-encoded proteins. (b) Tree topologies derived from analyses of a compositionally homogenized dataset of mitochondrion-, and nucleus-encoded proteins. (c) Tree topologies derived from analyses of the untreated dataset of nucleus-encoded proteins. (d) Tree topologies derived from analyses of a compositionally homogenized dataset of nucleus-encoded proteins. (e) Tree topologies derived from analyses of the untreated dataset of mitochondrion-encoded proteins. (f) Tree topologies derived from analyses of a compositionally homogenized dataset of mitochondrion-encoded proteins. Datasets were compositionally homogenized by removing the 50% most compositionally heterogeneous sites according to the ɀ metric.

Extended Data Fig. 6 UPGMAs dendrograms for G A R P/F I M N K Y distances among the marker proteins of alphaproteobacterial origin in eukaryotes used in this study.

(a) Mitochondrion- and nucleus-encoded proteins. (b) Nucleus-encoded proteins. (c). Mitochondrion-encoded proteins. Nucleus-encoded proteins are in green, mitochondrion-encoded proteins in red, and both nucleus- and mitochondrion-encoded proteins in blue. Gene/protein names mostly follow the human gene nomenclature.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Phylogenetic distribution of the Mitofilin-domain containing Mic60 in the Proteobacteria.

The Mitofilin-domain containing Mic60, as defined by the Pfam pHMM Mitofilin PF09731, is phylogenetically restructured to the Alphaproteobacteria to the exclusion of MarineProteo1 clade and the Magnetococcia. This protein is also conspicuously absent in the Gamma- and Zetaproteobacteria.

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Muñoz-Gómez, S.A., Susko, E., Williamson, K. et al. Site-and-branch-heterogeneous analyses of an expanded dataset favour mitochondria as sister to known Alphaproteobacteria. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 253–262 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01638-2

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