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Asgard archaea shed light on the evolutionary origins of the eukaryotic ubiquitin-ESCRT machinery

Hatano, T and Palani, S and Papatziamou, D and Salzer, R and Souza, DP and Tamarit, D and Makwana, M and Potter, A and Haig, A and Xu, W and Townsend, D and Rochester, D and Bellini, D and Hussain, HMA and Ettema, TJG and Löwe, J and Baum, B and Robinson, NP and Balasubramanian, M (2022) Asgard archaea shed light on the evolutionary origins of the eukaryotic ubiquitin-ESCRT machinery. In: Nature Communications, 13 (1).

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30656-2

Abstract

The ESCRT machinery, comprising of multiple proteins and subcomplexes, is crucial for membrane remodelling in eukaryotic cells, in processes that include ubiquitin-mediated multivesicular body formation, membrane repair, cytokinetic abscission, and virus exit from host cells. This ESCRT system appears to have simpler, ancient origins, since many archaeal species possess homologues of ESCRT-III and Vps4, the components that execute the final membrane scission reaction, where they have been shown to play roles in cytokinesis, extracellular vesicle formation and viral egress. Remarkably, metagenome assemblies of Asgard archaea, the closest known living relatives of eukaryotes, were recently shown to encode homologues of the entire cascade involved in ubiquitin-mediated membrane remodelling, including ubiquitin itself, components of the ESCRT-I and ESCRT-II subcomplexes, and ESCRT-III and Vps4. Here, we explore the phylogeny, structure, and biochemistry of Asgard homologues of the ESCRT machinery and the associated ubiquitylation system. We provide evidence for the ESCRT-I and ESCRT-II subcomplexes being involved in ubiquitin-directed recruitment of ESCRT-III, as it is in eukaryotes. Taken together, our analyses suggest a pre-eukaryotic origin for the ubiquitin-coupled ESCRT system and a likely path of ESCRT evolution via a series of gene duplication and diversification events.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: Nature Communications
Publisher: Nature Research
Additional Information: The copyright for this article belongs to the Author.
Keywords: biochemistry, ESCRT protein; ubiquitin, archaeon; eukaryote; eukaryotic cell; genetics; metabolism, Archaea; Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport; Eukaryota; Eukaryotic Cells; Ubiquitin
Department/Centre: Division of Biological Sciences > Biochemistry
Date Deposited: 16 Sep 2022 04:49
Last Modified: 16 Sep 2022 04:49
URI: https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/76517

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