Citation:
Sci Adv. 2025 Mar 21;11(12):eadp8518. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp8518. Epub 2025 Mar 19. PMID: 40106558
Abstract:
Angomonas deanei is a trypanosomatid of the Strigomonadinae. All members of this subfamily contain a single β-proteobacterial endosymbiont. Intriguingly, cell cycles of host and endosymbiont are synchronized. The molecular mechanisms underlying this notable level of integration are unknown. Previously, we identified a nucleus-encoded dynamin-like protein, called ETP9, that localizes at the endosymbiont division site of A. deanei. Here, we found by comparative genomics that endosymbionts throughout the Strigomonadinae lost the capacity to autonomously form a division septum. We describe the cell cycle-dependent subcellular localization of ETP9 that follows accumulation of the bacterium-encoded division protein FtsZ at the endosymbiont division site. Furthermore, we found that ETP9 is essential in symbiotic but dispensable in aposymbiotic A. deanei that lost the endosymbiont. In the symbiotic strain, ETP9 knockdowns resulted in filamentous, division-impaired endosymbionts. Our work unveiled that in A. deanei an endosymbiont division machinery of dual genetic origin evolved in which a neo-functionalized host protein compensates for losses of endosymbiont division genes.
Epub:
Not Epub
Link to Publication:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp8518
Organism or Cell Type:
Angomonas deanei (trypanosoma)
Delivery Method:
electroporation