How Does Horizontal Gene Transfer Shape the Tree of Life?

[Buzz Bloom]

In a recent review discussing the evolution of eukaryotes, I found this figure that I'd like to share with you all.

Hi @Ygggdrasil:

I have been trying to absorb the new organization shown in the figure in post #1, but I am having difficulty understanding the evolutionary lineage categories corresponding to the colors: white, orange, yellow, blue, green, and red. I get that purple represents the eukaryotes, but for the other six colors I can not find any correspnding named lineages. Can you help me?

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Hi @Ygggdrasil:

I have been trying to absorb the new organization shown in the figure in post #1, but I am having difficulty understanding the evolutionary lineage categories corresponding to the colors: white, orange, yellow, blue, green, and red. I get that purple represents the eukaryotes, but for the other six colors I can not find any correspnding named lineages. Can you help me?

Regards,
Buzz

That's a good question. From what I can tell, the author does not really elaborate on this in the article. I don't know enough about bacterial and archaeal evolution to answer, so if you're really interested, perhaps its worth contacting the author of the article for more information.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Hi @Ygggdrasil:

I received permission form Prof. James Lake to post some references about this topic. He also requested that the figures from the original link

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1678/20140321​

should be cited as being from:

Lake, JA, 2015 Eukaryotic Origins, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 370, 20140321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0321, Vol 370, Issue 1678, 26 September 2015.​

Also, the original link should be cited as

James Lake
Distinguished Prof. MCDBiology and Human Genetics
UCLA
For our latest review on the eocyte (or two domains tree) see the recent review: Eukaryotic Origins, James A. Lake, Accepted 5 May 2015
Philosophical Transactions R. Soc. B, 370, 20140321,
http//dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0321.​

Here are some other references on this topic.

Latest reviews and results supporting the Eocyte tree:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...may-help-explain-how-single-cells-became-usll​

For lab details, including a video of the 2011 Darwin Wallace Medal see:

http://www.mcdb.ucla.edu/Research/Lake/
​

See additional reviews and results supporting the Eocyte Hypothesis:

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2012/12/20/redrawing-the-tree-of-life/
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/10/18/rspb.2012.17 95.full
http://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2012/09/begetting-the-eukarya-an-un expected-light.html
http://courses.missouristate.edu/chrisbarnhart/bio121/readings/Zimmer%20Orig in%20of%20Eukaryotes.pdf
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=eocyte&IncludeBlogs =7
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1527/2197.full.pdf
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/51/20049.full
http://www.yale.edu/ochman/Papers/Ochman_EnvMicro2009aop.pdf​

Regarding the colors in the original figure, he wrote the following:

The major pathways mentioned are photosynthesis – in green – which flows all the way to to the Plants at the top.
Phototrophy, a type of pre-photosynthesis, is shown in yellow and then it evolves into photosynthesis (again the green flow).
And last, the magenta flow goes into the eocytes (the dawn cells) and into the nucleus that is present in all eukaryotes.
These are labeled in the figure at the following url:

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1678/20140321​

Regards,
Buzz