ABSTRACT
Plastids in plants and algae evolved from the endosymbiotic integration of a cyanobacterium by a heterotrophic eukaryote. New plastids can only emerge through fission; thus, the synchronization of bacterial division with the cell cycle of the eukaryotic host was vital to the origin of phototrophic eukaryotes. Most of the sampled algae house a single plastid per cell and basal-branching relatives of polyplastidic lineages are all monoplastidic, as are some non-vascular plants during certain stages of their life cycle. In this Review, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the molecular components necessary for plastid division, including those of the peptidoglycan wall (of which remnants were recently identified in moss), in a wide range of phototrophic eukaryotes. Our comparison of the phenotype of 131 species harbouring plastids of either primary or secondary origin uncovers that one prerequisite for an algae or plant to house multiple plastids per nucleus appears to be the loss of the bacterial genes minD and minE from the plastid genome. The presence of a single plastid whose division is coupled to host cytokinesis was a prerequisite of plastid emergence. An escape from such a monoplastidic bottleneck succeeded rarely and appears to be coupled to the evolution of additional layers of control over plastid division and a complex morphology. The existence of a quality control checkpoint of plastid transmission remains to be demonstrated and is tied to understanding the monoplastidic bottleneck.
Footnotes
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing or financial interests.
Funding
J.d.V. (VR 132/1-1) and S.B.G. (GO1825/4-1 and in parts the CRC1208; VR132/1-1) are grateful for the financial support provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information available online at http://jcs.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/jcs.203414.supplemental.
- © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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- Top
- Article
- ABSTRACT
- Introduction
- Endosymbiotic gene transfer: the more the merrier
- The monoplastidic bottleneck
- Plastid division takes two to tango
- Multicellularity and polyplastidy are not coupled
- Lessons from mitochondrial inheritance
- Is there a quality control checkpoint for plastid inheritance in land plants?
- Conclusions and outlook
- Acknowledgements
- Footnotes
- References
- Figures & tables
- Supp info
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