Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD National Academy of Sciences
Résumé : International audience
The complexity and depth of the relationships between the three domains of life challenge the reliability of phylogenetic methods, encouraging the use of alternative analytical tools. We reconstructed a gene similarity network comprising the proteomes of 14 eukaryotes, 104 prokaryotes, 2,389 viruses and 1,044 plasmids. This network contains multiple signatures of the chimerical origin of Eukaryotes as a fusion of an archaebacterium and a eubacterium that could not have been observed using phylogenetic trees. A number of connected components (gene sets with stronger similarities than expected by chance) contain pairs of eukaryotic sequences exhibiting no direct detectable similarity. Instead, many eukaryotic sequences were indirectly connected through a ``eukaryote-archaebacterium-eubacterium-eukaryote'' similarity path. Furthermore, eukaryotic genes highly connected to prokaryotic genes from one domain tend not to be connected to genes from the other prokaryotic domain. Genes of archaebacterial and eubacterial ancestry tend to perform different functions and to act at different subcellular compartments, but in such an intertwined way that suggests an early rather than late integration of both gene repertoires. The archaebacterial repertoire has a similar size in all eukaryotic genomes whereas the number of eubacterium-derived genes is much more variable, suggesting a higher plasticity of this gene repertoire. Consequently, highly reduced eukaryotic genomes contain more genes of archaebacterial than eubacterial affinity. Connected componentswith prokaryotic and eukaryotic genes tend to include viral and plasmid genes, compatible with a role of gene mobility in the origin of Eukaryotes. Our analyses highlight the power of network approaches to study deep evolutionary events.
ISSN: 0027-8424

hal-01544798
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544798
DOI : 10.1073/pnas.1211371110

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Based on their small size and genomic properties, ultrasmall prokaryotic groups like the Candidate Phyla Radiation have been proposed as possible symbionts dependent on other bacteria or archaea. In this study, we use a bipartite graph analysis to examine patterns of sequence similarity between draft and complete genomes from ultrasmall bacteria and other complete prokaryotic genomes, assessing whether the former group might engage in significant gene transfer (or even endosymbioses) with other community members. Our results provide preliminary evidence for many lateral gene transfers with other prokaryotes, including members of the archaea, and report the presence of divergent, membrane-associated proteins among these ultrasmall taxa. In particular, these divergent genes were found in TM6 relatives of the intracellular parasite Babela massiliensis.
ISSN: 1462-2912

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01480348
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01480348
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01480348/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01480348/file/emi13477.pdf
DOI : 10.1111/1462-2920.13477

Éditeur(s) : Wiley / Blackwell
Résumé : P>The distribution of the archaeal communities in deep subseafloor sediments [0-36 m below the seafloor (mbsf)] from the New Caledonia and Fairway Basins was investigated using DNA- and RNA-derived 16S rRNA clone libraries, functional genes and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). A new method, Co-Migration DGGE (CM-DGGE), was developed to access selectively the active archaeal diversity. Prokaryotic cell abundances at the open-ocean sites were on average similar to 3.5 times lower than at a site under terrestrial influence. The sediment surface archaeal community (0-1.5 mbsf) was characterized by active Marine Group 1 (MG-1) Archaea that co-occurred with ammonia monooxygenase gene (amoA) sequences affiliated to a group of uncultured sedimentary Crenarchaeota. However, the anoxic subsurface methane-poor sediments (below 1.5 mbsf) were dominated by less active archaeal communities, such as the Thermoplasmatales, Marine Benthic Group D and other lineages probably involved in the methane cycle (Methanosarcinales, ANME-2 and DSAG/MBG-B). Moreover, the archaeal diversity of some sediment layers was restricted to only one lineage (Uncultured Euryarchaeota, DHVE6, MBG-B, MG-1 and SAGMEG). Sequences forming two clusters within the Thermococcales order were also present in these cold subseafloor sediments, suggesting that these uncultured putative thermophilic archaeal communities might have originated from a different environment. This study shows a transition between surface and subsurface sediment archaeal communities.
Environmental Microbiology (1462-2912) (Wiley / Blackwell), 2009-09 , Vol. 11 , N. 9 , P. 2446-2462

Droits : 2009 Society for Applied Microbiology and Wiley - Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6801.pdf
DOI:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01976.x
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6801/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD HUMANA PRESS INC
Résumé : International audience
Ever since Darwin, the familiar genealogical pattern known as the Tree of Life (TOL) has been prominent in evolutionary thinking and has dominated not only systematics, but also the analysis of the units of evolution. However, recent findings indicate that the evolution of DNA, especially in prokaryotes and such DNA vehicles as viruses and plasmids, does not follow a unique tree-like pattern. Because evolutionary patterns track a greater range of processes than those captured in genealogies, genealogical patterns are in fact only a subset of a broader set of evolutionary patterns. This fact suggests that evolutionists who focus exclusively on genealogical patterns are blocked from providing a significant range of genuine evolutionary explanations. Consequently, we highlight challenges to tree-based approaches, and point the way toward more appropriate methods to study evolution (although we do not present them in technical detail). We argue that there is significant benefit in adopting wider range of models, evolutionary representations, and evolutionary explanations, based on an analysis of the full range of evolutionary processes. We introduce an ecosystem orientation into evolutionary thinking that highlights the importance of ``type 1 coalitions'' (functionally related units with genetic exchanges, aka ``friends with genetic benefits''), ``type 2 coalitions'' (functionally related units without genetic exchanges), ``communal interactions,'' and ``emergent evolutionary properties.'' On this basis, we seek to promote the study of (especially prokaryotic) evolution with dynamic evolutionary networks, which are less constrained than the TOL, and to provide new ways to analyze an expanded range of evolutionary units (genetic modules, recombined genes, plasmids, phages and prokaryotic genomes, pangenomes, microbial communities) and evolutionary processes. Finally, we discuss some of the conceptual and practical questions raised by such network-based representation.
EVOLUTIONARY GENOMICS: STATISTICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL METHODS, VOL 2

ISBN : 978-1-61779-584-8
hal-01544801
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544801
DOI : 10.1007/978-1-61779-585-5_4

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Science Bv
Résumé : In tropical shrimp ponds, the increasing of feed input, concomitantly with the stocking shrimp biomass, induces an eutrophication of the ecosystem. Although difficult to maintain, its stability is required to guarantee the success of the culture. A 110-day period of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton stock and dynamics in an earthen pond (1.2 ha area, 1 m depth) was monitored using flow cytometry to provide baseline information on community characteristics and ecosystem instability. Seven autotrophic cell types were identified over the whole sampling period. Prokaryotic cells included Synechococcus sp., a group named UNK which presented an atypical new flow cytometric signature and picoeukaryotes (PEUK). Nanophytoplankton cells were represented by 4 groups: NAN1, NAN2, NAN3 and Cryptophytes. During the first part of the survey, picophytoplankton dominated the phytoplanktonic assemblage. The mean abundance of total cells (up to 8 x 10(6) cells mL(-1)) was among the highest recorded in marine and brackish waters. Bacterial abundance and production ranged from 0.8 to 5.1 x 10(7) cells mL(-1) and from 30 to 110 mu g C L-1 h(-1). A shift from pico to nanophytoplankton abundance was observed for a few days from d 96. During this period, heterotrophic bacteria production and abundance suddenly dropped, implying a change in the functioning of the microbial loop. This shift was concomitant with a significant shrimp mortality outbreak due to Vibrio penaeicida, the etiological agent of a disease known as Syndrome 93, which affects the shrimp industry in New Caledonia. This survey suggests that flow cytometric analysis could be used for the monitoring of aquaculture systems to improve our understanding of the complex phytoplankton and bacterial dynamics of these systems and its potential influence on disease development. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Aquaculture (0044-8486) (Elsevier Science Bv), 2010-12 , Vol. 310 , N. 1-2 , P. 112-121

Droits : 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00029/14068/11312.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2010.10.022
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00029/14068/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé : International audience
Background: Microbial genetic diversity is often investigated via the comparison of relatively similar 16S molecules through multiple alignments between reference sequences and novel environmental samples using phylogenetic trees, direct BLAST matches, or phylotypes counts. However, are we missing novel lineages in the microbial dark universe by relying on standard phylogenetic and BLAST methods? If so, how can we probe that universe using alternative approaches? We performed a novel type of multi-marker analysis of genetic diversity exploiting the topology of inclusive sequence similarity networks. Results: Our protocol identified 86 ancient gene families, well distributed and rarely transferred across the 3 domains of life, and retrieved their environmental homologs among 10 million predicted ORFs from human gut samples and other metagenomic projects. Numerous highly divergent environmental homologs were observed in gut samples, although the most divergent genes were over-represented in non-gut environments. In our networks, most divergent environmental genes grouped exclusively with uncultured relatives, in maximal cliques. Sequences within these groups were under strong purifying selection and presented a range of genetic variation comparable to that of a prokaryotic domain. Conclusions: Many genes families included environmental homologs that were highly divergent from cultured homologs: in 79 gene families (including 18 ribosomal proteins), Bacteria and Archaea were less divergent than some groups of environmental sequences were to any cultured or viral homologs. Moreover, some groups of environmental homologs branched very deeply in phylogenetic trees of life, when they were not too divergent to be aligned. These results underline how limited our understanding of the most diverse elements of the microbial world remains, and encourage a deeper exploration of natural communities and their genetic resources, hinting at the possibility that still unknown yet major divisions of life have yet to be discovered.
ISSN: 1745-6150

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01257771
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771/file/s13062-015-0092-3.pdf
DOI : 10.1186/s13062-015-0092-3

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : The Amazon basin harbors a diverse ecological community that has a critical role in the maintenance of the biosphere. Although plant and animal communities have received much attention, basic information is lacking for fungal or prokaryotic communities. This is despite the fact that recent ecological studies have suggested a prominent role for interactions with soil fungi in structuring the diversity and abundance of tropical rainforest trees. In this study, we characterize soil fungal communities across three major tropical forest types in the western Amazon basin (terra firme, seasonally flooded and white sand) using 454 pyrosequencing. Using these data, we examine the relationship between fungal diversity and tree species richness, and between fungal community composition and tree species composition, soil environment and spatial proximity. We find that the fungal community in these ecosystems is diverse, with high degrees of spatial variability related to forest type. We also find strong correlations between alpha- and beta-diversity of soil fungi and trees. Both fungal and plant community beta-diversity were also correlated with differences in environmental conditions. The correlation between plant and fungal richness was stronger in fungal lineages known for biotrophic strategies (for example, pathogens, mycorrhizas) compared with a lineage known primarily for saprotrophy (yeasts), suggesting that this coupling is, at least in part, due to direct plant-fungal interactions. These data provide a much-needed look at an understudied dimension of the biota in an important ecosystem and supports the hypothesis that fungal communities are involved in the regulation of tropical tree diversity.
ISSN: 1751-7362

hal-01032405
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032405
DOI : 10.1038/ismej.2013.66

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Ciliates represent a diversified group of protists known to establish symbioses with prokaryotic microorganisms. They are mainly phagotrophs and symbiotic relationships with bacteria can give them an important advantage in chemosynthetic environments. The aim of this study is to describe the thiotrophic association that occurs between the peritrich ciliate Pseudovorticella sp. and potential sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Investigations at microscopic scale (LM, SEM, TEM) showed ectosymbiotic bacteria covering the surface of the body of Pseudovorticella sp. According to 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis, these ectosymbiotic bacteria belong to-proteobacteria and are phylogenetically close to the symbiont of the recently described Zoothamnium ignavum, which inhabits shallow-water wood falls. FISH experiments, using symbiont specific probes, clearly indicate that these ectosymbiotic bacteria are also ingested into food vacuoles. Electron lucent granules observed in TEM in the cytoplasm of the ectosymbiotic bacteria have been identified as sulfur granules by Raman microspectrometry analyses. Raman microspec-trometry analyses confirmed the thiotrophic nature of this relationship already suggested by the results obtained by TEM and phylogeny. A complete sulfur map was then performed to investigate the sulfur distribution in the zooid. Results show that the relationship between this protist and its bacterial partner is a thiotrophic ectosymbiosis.
ISSN: 0932-4739

hal-01655933
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01655933
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01655933/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01655933/file/GRIMONPREZ_Adrien_sans%20marque.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.ejop.2017.11.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD National Academy of Sciences
Résumé : International audience
The integration of foreign genetic information is central to the evolution of eukaryotes, as has been demonstrated for the origin of the Calvin cycle and of the heme and carotenoid biosynthesis pathways in algae and plants. For photosynthetic lineages, this coordination involved three genomes of divergent phylogenetic origins (the nucleus, plastid, and mitochondrion). Major hurdles overcome by the ancestor of these lineages were harnessing the oxygen-evolving organelle, optimizing the use of light, and stabilizing the partnership between the plastid endosymbiont and host through retargeting of proteins to the nascent organelle. Here we used protein similarity networks that can disentangle reticulate gene histories to explore how these significant challenges were met. We discovered a previously hidden component of algal and plant nuclear genomes that originated from the plastid endosymbiont: symbiogenetic genes (S genes). These composite proteins, exclusive to photosynthetic eukaryotes, encode a cyanobacterium-derived domain fused to one of cyanobacterial or another prokaryotic origin and have emerged multiple, independent times during evolution. Transcriptome data demonstrate the existence and expression of S genes across a wide swath of algae and plants, and functional data indicate their involvement in tolerance to oxidative stress, phototropism, and adaptation to nitrogen limitation. Our research demonstrates the ``recycling'' of genetic information by photosynthetic eukaryotes to generate novel composite genes, many of which function in plastid maintenance.
ISSN: 0027-8424

hal-01544793
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544793
DOI : 10.1073/pnas.1517551113

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press
Résumé : International audience
Type IB DNA topoisomerases can eliminate torsional stresses produced during replication and transcription. These enzymes are found in all eukaryotes and a short version is present in some bacteria and viruses. Among prokaryotes, the long eukaryotic version is only observed in archaea of the phylum Thau-marchaeota. However, the activities and the roles of these topoisomerases have remained an open question. Here, we demonstrate that all available thaumar-chaeal genomes contain a topoisomerase IB gene that defines a monophyletic group closely related to the eukaryotic enzymes. We show that the topIB gene is expressed in the model thaumarchaeon Ni-trososphaera viennensis and we purified the recom-binant enzyme from the uncultivated thaumarchaeon Candidatus Caldiarchaeum subterraneum. This enzyme is active in vitro at high temperature, making it the first thermophilic topoisomerase IB characterized so far. We have compared this archaeal type IB enzyme to its human mitochondrial and nuclear counterparts. The archaeal enzyme relaxes both negatively and positively supercoiled DNA like the eukaryotic enzymes. However, its pattern of DNA cleavage specificity is different and it is resistant to camptothecins (CPTs) and non-CPT Top1 inhibitors, LMP744 and lamellarin D. This newly described ther-mostable topoisomerases IB should be a promising new model for evolutionary, mechanistic and structural studies.
ISSN: 0305-1048

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01327354
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01327354
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01327354/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01327354/file/Nucl.%20Acids%20Res.-2016-Dahmane-2795-805.pdf
DOI : 10.1093/nar/gkw097

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Public Library of Science
Résumé : International audience
BackgroundSince the discovery of thioautotrophic bacterial symbiosis in the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, there has been great impetus to investigate such partnerships in other invertebrates. In this study, we present the occurrence of a sulphur-oxidizing symbiosis in a metazoan belonging to the phylum Cnidaria in which this event has never been described previously.Methodology/Principal FindingsScanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) observations and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXs) analysis, were employed to unveil the presence of prokaryotes population bearing elemental sulphur granules, growing on the body surface of the metazoan. Phylogenetic assessments were also undertaken to identify this invertebrate and microorganisms in thiotrophic symbiosis. Our results showed the occurrence of a thiotrophic symbiosis in a cnidarian identified as Cladonema sp.Conclusions/SignificanceThis is the first report describing the occurrence of a sulphur-oxidizing symbiosis in a cnidarian. Furthermore, of the two adult morphologies, the polyp and medusa, this mutualistic association was found restricted to the polyp form of Cladonema sp.
ISSN: 1932-6203

hal-01203244
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01203244
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01203244/document
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01203244/file/Plos%20Cladonema%20%281%29.pdf
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01203244/file/Plos%20Cladonema.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
The nature of factors governing the tempo and mode of protein evolution is a fundamental issue in evolutionary biology. Specifically, whether or not interactions between different sites, or epistasis, are important in directing the course of evolution became one of the central questions. Several recent reports have scrutinized patterns of long-term protein evolution claiming them to be compatible only with an epistatic fitness landscape. However, these claims have not yet been substantiated with a formal model of protein evolution. Here, we formulate a simple covarion-like model of protein evolution focusing on the rate at which the fitness impact of amino acids at a site changes with time. We then apply the model to the data on convergent and divergent protein evolution to test whether or not the incorporation of epistatic interactions is necessary to explain the data. We find that convergent evolution cannot be explained without the incorporation of epistasis and the rate at which an amino acid state switches from being acceptable at a site to being deleterious is faster than the rate of amino acid substitution. Specifically, for proteins that have persisted in modern prokaryotic organisms since the last universal common ancestor for one amino acid substitution approximately ten amino acid states switch from being accessible to being deleterious, or vice versa. Thus, molecular evolution can only be perceived in the context of rapid turnover of which amino acids are available for evolution.
ISSN: 0737-4038

hal-01544755
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544755
DOI : 10.1093/molbev/msu318