Experimentally Testing the Endosymbiotic Theory of Mitochondrial Evolution

Project Summary/AbstractWe will attempt to recapitulate mitochondrial evolution based on the endosymbiotic theory.Eukaryotic organelles, like mitochondria and chloroplasts, are proposed to have evolved frombacterial endosymbionts during an early stage of evolution. Here we will begin to test this theoryusing two well established model organisms ? E. coli and S. cerevisiae. Specifically, we willgenerate bacterial endosymbionts in yeast cells. Once we establish stable endosymbionts we willsystematically either knockout large parts of the bacterial genome or move specific genes to thehost genome to obtain a minimal symbiont genome similar to the early stages of mitochondrialevolution. We will also attempt to further delete genes in the yeast mitochondria, explore thosefactors that affect the stability of this system and light utilizing endosymbionts using yeast andcyanobacteria. These studies have the potential to provide additional insights into the evolutionof complex eukaryotic functions, such as energy generating mitochondria.