Metabolism and evolution

In an article published on December 15, 2020 in Genome Biol Evolution, Luc Thomès et Alain Lescure describe the unusual presence of an archaeal pathway for biosynthesis of phosphopantothenate, a precursor of Coenzyme A, in a group of unclassified bacteria, Candidatus poribacteria. This observation was unexpected, since the use of the two alternative pathways has been proposed as a phylogenetic marker to distinguish between bacteria and archaea. Moreover, the presence of the archaea enzymes appeared to be limited to the sub-group of poribacteria living in symbiosis with sponges, as free-living poribacteria were shown to use the classical bacterial pathway. These observations indicated that the utilization of the archaeal metabolic route might be part of the sponge/bacteria interaction.

Reference: Mosaic evolution of the phosphopantothenate biosynthesis pathway in bacteria and archaea. Thomès L and Lescure A. Genome Biol Evol. 2020 Dec 15. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evaa262. PMID: 33320181

Contact: Alain Lescure