Evidence for an early prokaryotic endosymbiosis

James A. Lake ()
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James A. Lake: Cellular and Developmental Biology

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7258, 967-971

Abstract: Intracellular structure: bacterial combinations Endosymbiosis, or the fusion of different forms of life to create a new and more complex whole, is thought to have been important in the evolution of complex cells. The discrete compartments of cells — the nuclei, mitochondria and so on — are the remnants of once-independent organisms. But did endosymbiosis play a role in the evolution of simpler organisms, such as bacteria? This has not usually been considered, given that these organisms do not have a compartmentalized internal structure. However, many successful and important bacteria have double-layered cell membranes, and in a Hypothesis feature, James Lake suggests that this is the relic of a fusion between two different bacterial cell types, the clostridia and the actinobacteria.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08183

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