Résumé
The year 1970 saw the publication of Origin of Eukaryotic Cells by Lynn Margulis. This influential book brought the exciting and weighty problems of cellular evolution to the scientific mainstream, simultaneously breaking new ground and 're-discovering' the decades-old ideas of German and Russian biologists. In this commemorative review, I discuss the 40 years that have elapsed since this landmark publication, with a focus on the 'molecular era': how DNA sequencing and comparative genomics have proven beyond all doubt the central tenets of the endosymbiont hypothesis for the origin of mitochondria and plastids, and, at the same time, revealed a genetic and genomic complexity in modern-day eukaryotes that could not have been imagined in decades past.
| Langue d'origine | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (de-à) | 69-86 |
| Nombre de pages | 18 |
| Journal | Symbiosis |
| Volume | 54 |
| Numéro de publication | 2 |
| DOI | |
| Statut de publication | Published - juin 2011 |
Note bibliographique
Funding Information:I sincerely thank Michael Gray and Ford Doolittle, in whose laboratories some of the first molecular data in support of the endosymbiont hypothesis for the origins of plastids and mitochondria was obtained, for support and discussion. Andrew Roger, Eunsoo Kim and two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for providing helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Geoff McFadden and Robert W. Lee are thanked for discussion of the symbiosis literature. Errors of fact pertaining to the extensive literature on the history of research in symbiosis and mitochondrial and plastid evolution should be attributed solely to the author. Research in the Archibald Laboratory is supported by operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics at Dalhousie University. Financial support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Program in Integrated Microbial Biodiversity, is also acknowledged, as is salary support in the form of a New Investigator Award from CIHR.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences