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the
About 10 years ago
scientists finally worked out
the basic outline of how
modern life-forms evolved.
C
harles Darwin contended more than a century Their approach, known as molecular phylogeny, is emi-
ago that all modern species diverged from a nently logical. Individual genes, composed of unique se-
more limited set of ancestral groups, which quences of nucleotides, typically serve as the blueprints for
themselves evolved from still fewer progeni- making specific proteins, which consist of particular strings
tors and so on back to the beginning of life. In of amino acids. All genes, however, mutate (change in se-
principle, then, the relationships among all liv- quence), sometimes altering the encoded protein. Genetic mu-
ing and extinct organisms could be represented as a single ge- tations that have no effect on protein function or that im-
nealogical tree. prove it will inevitably accumulate over time. Thus, as two
Most contemporary researchers agree. Many would even species diverge from an ancestor, the sequences of the genes
argue that the general features of this tree are already known, they share will also diverge. And as time passes, the genetic
all the way down to the root— a solitary cell, termed life’s last divergence will increase. Investigators can therefore recon-
universal common ancestor, that lived roughly 3.5 to 3.8 bil-
lion years ago. The consensus view did not come easily but
has been widely accepted for more than a decade. BACTERIA
Yet ill winds are blowing. To everyone’s surprise, discover- Other bacteria Cyanobacteria
ies made in the past few years have begun to cast serious
doubt on some aspects of the tree, especially on the depiction
of the relationships near the root.
ARCHAEA
Algae
Crenarchaeota Euryarchaeota
Proteobacteria
Ciliates
loroplasts
Bacteria that gave rise to ch
Bacteria tha
t gave rise to mitochon d r ia
} Other single-
cell eukaryotes
Korarchaeota
JANA BRENNING
CHRISTOPH BLUMRICH
right tools became available in the mid-
1970s, investigators decided to see if
those RNA genes were inherited from
alpha-proteobacteria and cyanobacteria,
PRIMITIVE
b Eukaryote retains bacterium
as a symbiont respectively— as the endosymbiont hy-
EUKARYOTE pothesis would predict. They were.
CHROMOSOME One deduction, however, introduced
NUCLEUS
a discordant note into all this harmony.
INTERNAL MEMBRANE
CYTOSKELETON
In the late 1970s Woese asserted that
BACTERIAL FOOD
(ALPHA-PROTEOBACTERIUM) the two-domain view of life, dividing
the world into bacteria and eukaryotes,
was no longer tenable; a three-domain
a Cell loses wall, grows, acquires other construct had to take its place.
PROKARYOTE
DNA
eukaryotic features and ingests a bacterium Certain prokaryotes classified as bac-
RIBOSOME teria might look like bacteria but, he in-
MEMBRANE sisted, were genetically much different.
CELL WALL In fact, their rRNA supported an early
cient anaerobic prokaryote (unable to separation. Many of these species had
use oxygen for energy) lost its cell wall. already been noted for displaying unusu-
also displayed other prominent features, The more flexible membrane under- al behavior, such as favoring extreme en-
among them a cytoskeleton, an intricate neath then began to grow and fold in vironments, but no one had disputed
system of internal membranes and, usu- on itself. This change, in turn, led to their status as bacteria. Now Woese
ally, mitochondria (organelles that per- formation of a nucleus and other inter- claimed that they formed a third primary
form respiration, using oxygen to ex- nal membranes and also enabled the group— the archaea— as different from
tract energy from nutrients). In the case cell to engulf and digest neighboring bacteria as bacteria are from eukaryotes.
of algae and higher plants, the cells also prokaryotes, instead of gaining nour-
contained chloroplasts (photosynthetic ishment entirely by absorbing small Acrimony, Then Consensus
organelles). molecules from its environment.
Prokaryotes, thought at the time to be
synonymous with bacteria, were noted to
consist of smaller and simpler nonnucle-
At some point, one of the descen-
dants of this primitive eukaryote took
up bacterial cells of the type known as
A t first, the claim met enormous resis-
tance. Yet eventually most scientists
became convinced, in part because the
ated cells. They are usually enclosed by alpha-proteobacteria, which are profi- overall structures of certain molecules
both a membrane and a rigid outer wall. cient at respiration. But instead of di- in archaeal species corroborated the
Woese’s early data supported the dis- gesting this “food,” the eukaryote set- three-group arrangement. For instance,
tinction between prokaryotes and eu- tled into a mutually beneficial (symbiot- the cell membranes of all archaea are
karyotes, by establishing that the SSU ic) relationship with it. The eukaryote made up of unique lipids (fatty sub-
rRNAs in typical bacteria were more sheltered the internalized cells, and the stances) that are quite distinct— in their
similar in sequence to one another than “endosymbionts” provided extra ener- physical properties, chemical constituents
to the rRNA of eukaryotes. The initial gy to the host through respiration. Fi- and linkages—from the lipids of bacteria.
rRNA findings also lent credence to nally, the endosymbionts lost the genes Similarly, the archaeal proteins respon-
one of the most interesting notions in they formerly used for independent sible for several crucial cellular processes
evolutionary cell biology: the endosym- growth and transferred others to the have a distinct structure from the pro-
biont hypothesis. This conception aims host’s nucleus— becoming mitochon- teins that perform the same tasks in bac-
to explain how eukaryotic cells first dria in the process. Likewise, chloro- teria. Gene transcription and translation
came to possess mitochondria and plasts derive from cyanobacteria that an are two of those processes. To make a
chloroplasts [see “The Birth of Com- early, mitochondria-bearing eukaryote protein, a cell first copies, or transcribes,
plex Cells,” by Christian de Duve, Sci- took up and kept. the corresponding gene into a strand of
entific American, April 1996]. Mitochondria and chloroplasts in messenger RNA. Then ribosomes trans-
On the way to becoming a eukary- modern eukaryotes still retain a small late the messenger RNA codes into a
ote, the hypothesis proposes, some an- number of genes, including those that specific string of amino acids. Bio-
Root
(based on other data)
BACTERIA
SOURCE: DAVID F. SPENCER Dalhousie University
Rickettsia Trypanosomes
Parabasalids
Mitochondria
CHRISTOPH BLUMRICH;
Methanococcus
Cyanobacteria
Aquifex
Sulfolobus ARCHAEA
Chloroplasts
RELATIONSHIPS among ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) from almost or mitochondrial genes. The mitochondrial lines are relatively long
600 species are depicted. A single line represents the rRNA sequence because mitochondrial genes evolve rapidly. Trees derived from
in one species or a group; many of the lines reflect rRNAs encoded rRNA data are rootless; other data put the root at the colored dot,
by nuclear genes, but others reflect rRNAs encoded by chloroplast corresponding to the lowest part of the tree on pages 90 and 91.
cestor. This finding is part of growing evidence in- single ancient cell. But extensive trans-
dicating that the evolution of unicellular life has long been influenced fer means that neither is the case: gene
profoundly by lateral gene transfer (occurring between contemporaries). trees will differ (although many will
The consensus universal tree does not take that influence into account. have regions of similar topology), and
REVISED “TREE” OF LIFE retains a treelike structure at the top of the eukaryotic do-
EUKARYOTES
main and acknowledges that eukaryotes obtained mitochondria and chloroplasts from Animals Fungi Plants
bacteria. But it also includes an extensive network of untreelike links between branch-
es. Those links have been inserted somewhat randomly to symbolize the rampant later-
al gene transfer of single or multiple genes that has always occurred between unicellu-
lar organisms. This “tree” also lacks a single cell at the root; the three major domains
of life probably arose from a population of primitive cells that differed in their genes.
BACTERIA ARCHAEA
Algae
Other bacteria Cyanobacteria Crenarchaeota Euryarchaeota
Proteobacteria
Ciliates
t gave rise to chloroplasts
}
ac teria tha
B
Other single-
cell eukaryotes
to mitochondria
ia that gave rise
Bacter
Korarchaeota
Hyperthermophilic
bacteria
JANA BRENNING