A Unifying Scenario on the Origin and Evolution of Cellular and Viral Domains

The cellular theory on the nature of life has been one of the first major advancements in biology. Viruses, however, are the most abundant life forms, and their exclusion from mainstream biology and the Tree of Life (TOL) is a major paradox in biology. This article presents a broad, unifying scenario on the origin and evolution of cellular and viral domains that challenges the conventional views about the history of life and supports a TOL that includes viruses. Co-evolution of viruses and their host cells has led to some of the most remarkable developments and transitions in the evolution of life, including the origin of non-coding DNA as a genomic protective device against viral insertion damage. However, one of the major fundamental evolutionary developments driven by viruses was probably the origin of cellular domains - Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya - from the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) lineage, by evolving anti-fusion mechanisms. Consistent with a novel fusion/fission model for the population mode of evolution of LUCA, this paper presents a “cell-like world” model for the origin of life. According to this model the evolution of coupled replication, transcription and translation system (RT&T) occurred within non-living cell-like compartments (CCs). In this model, the ancestral ribosome originated as template-based RNA synthesizing machinery. The origin of the cellular genome as a centralized unit for storage and replication of genetic information within the CCs facilitated the evolution of the ancestral ribosome into a powerful translation machinery - the modern ribosome. After several hundred millions of years of providing an enclosed environment and fusion/fission based exchanges necessary for the population mode of evolution of the basic metabolism and the RT&T, the CCs evolved into the first living entities on earth - the LUCA lineage. The paper concludes with a proposal for a TOL that integrates the co-evolution of cellular and viral domains. This is one of a series of three articles that present a unifying scenario on the origin and evolution of viral and cellular domains, including the origin of life, which has significant t bio-medical implications and could lead to a significant paradigm shift in biology

Endogenous Viral Etiology of Prion Diseases

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, are a group of incurable neurodegenerative disorders, including Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, “mad cow” disease in cattle, and scrapie in sheep. This paper presents structural, genetic, and evolutionary evidence supporting an endogenous TSE virus model that integrates the three major traditional views on the nature of TSE pathogens, the conventional virus view, the prion hypothesis, and the virino concept, into a novel conceptual and evolutionary framework. According to this model, the TSE pathogens are symbiotic endogenous viruses that inadvertently produce transmissible viral particles that lack the viral genome and are composed primarily of the viral prion protein (PrP). Production of defective viral particles that contain a partial genome or lack the viral genome entirely is a relatively common event in the life cycle of many viruses. Similar to the normal viral particles, which contain a genome, these defective viral particles can be transmitted to new host cells. Obviously, in the absence of viral genome, these protein-only viral particles cannot establish a productive infection. However, if these viral particles enter a host cell that carries the parental or a related virus and induce the production of similar protein-only particles, then they would appear as self-replicating, protein-only infectious pathogens if mistakenly taken out from the context of the viral life cycle. This misconception, which is rooted into the current dogma of viruses as viral particles, led to the development of the prion theory. The endogenous TSE virus model is consistent with the TSE data and offers solutions to many enigmatic features associated with TSE, including the function of PrP that, despite more than two decades of TSE research conducted primarily within the framework of the prion hypothesis, is still not known. According to the TSE endogenous virus model, PrP is the protein of an endogenous virus that has co-evolved with their vertebrate hosts by providing a protective function against pathogenic viruses. The evidence for the endogenous TSE virus model and for the antiviral protective function of PrP is strong, and they are fully open to additional experimental testing. The endogenous virus model opens the TSE research field to new interpretations and directions, both in basic research and in associated biomedical and public health fields, and could lead to development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches

The modern versus extended evolutionary synthesis : sketch of an intra-genomic gene's eye view for the evolutionary-genetic underpinning of epigenetic and developmental evolution

Studying the phenotypic evolution of organisms in terms of populations of genes and genotypes, the Modern Synthesis (MS) conceptualizes biological evolution in terms of 'inter-organismal' interactions among genes sitting in the different individual organisms that constitute a population. It 'black-boxes' the complex 'intra-organismic' molecular and developmental epigenetics mediating between genotypes and phenotypes. To conceptually integrate epigenetics and evo-devo into evolutionary theory, advocates of an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) argue that the MS's reductive gene-centrism should be abandoned in favor of a more inclusive organism-centered approach. To push the debate to a new level of understanding, we introduce the evolutionary biology of 'intra-genomic conflict' (IGC) to the controversy. This strategy is based on a twofold rationale. First, the field of IGC is both ‘gene-centered’ and 'intra-organismic' and, as such, could build a bridge between the gene-centered MS and the intra-organismic fields of epigenetics and evo-devo. And second, it is increasingly revealed that IGC plays a significant causal role in epigenetic and developmental evolution and even in speciation. Hence, to deal with the ‘discrepancy’ between the ‘gene-centered’ MS and the ‘intra-organismic’ fields of epigenetics and evo-devo, we sketch a conceptual solution in terms of ‘intra-genomic conflict and compromise’ – an ‘intra-genomic gene’s eye view’ that thinks in terms of intra-genomic ‘evolutionarily stable strategies’ (ESSs) among numerous and various DNA regions and elements – to evolutionary-genetically underwrite both epigenetic and developmental evolution, as such questioning the ‘gene-de-centered’ stance put forward by EES-advocates

An evolutionary perspective on the kinome of malaria parasites

Malaria parasites belong to an ancient lineage that diverged very early from the main branch of eukaryotes. The approximately 90-member plasmodial kinome includes a majority of eukaryotic protein kinases that clearly cluster within the AGC, CMGC, TKL, CaMK and CK1 groups found in yeast, plants and mammals, testifying to the ancient ancestry of these families. However, several hundred millions years of independent evolution, and the specific pressures brought about by first a photosynthetic and then a parasitic lifestyle, led to the emergence of unique features in the plasmodial kinome. These include taxon-restricted kinase families, and unique peculiarities of individual enzymes even when they have homologues in other eukaryotes. Here, we merge essential aspects of all three malaria-related communications that were presented at the Evolution of Protein Phosphorylation meeting, and propose an integrated discussion of the specific features of the parasite's kinome and phosphoproteome

Comparative and demographic analysis of orang-utan genomes

Orang-utan- is derived from a Malay term meaning man of the forest- and aptly describes the southeast Asian great apes native to Sumatra and Borneo. The orang-utan species, Pongo abelii (Sumatran) and Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean), are the most phylogenetically distant great apes from humans, thereby providing an informative perspective on hominid evolution. Here we present a Sumatran orang-utan draft genome assembly and short read sequence data from five Sumatran and five Bornean orang-utan genomes. Our analyses reveal that, compared to other primates, the orang-utan genome has many unique features. Structural evolution of the orang-utan genome has proceeded much more slowly than other great apes, evidenced by fewer rearrangements, less segmental duplication, a lower rate of gene family turnover and surprisingly quiescent Alu repeats, which have played a major role in restructuring other primate genomes. We also describe a primate polymorphic neocentromere, found in both Pongo species, emphasizing the gradual evolution of orang-utan genome structure. Orang-utans have extremely low energy usage for a eutherian mammal, far lower than their hominid relatives. Adding their genome to the repertoire of sequenced primates illuminates new signals of positive selection in several pathways including glycolipid metabolism. From the population perspective, both Pongo species are deeply diverse; however, Sumatran individuals possess greater diversity than their Bornean counterparts, and more species-specific variation. Our estimate of Bornean/Sumatran speciation time, 400,000years ago, is more recent than most previous studies and underscores the complexity of the orang-utan speciation process. Despite a smaller modern census population size, the Sumatran effective population size (N e) expanded exponentially relative to the ancestral N e after the split, while Bornean N e declined over the same period. Overall, the resources and analyses presented here offer new opportunities in evolutionary genomics, insights into hominid biology, and an extensive database of variation for conservation efforts. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Oncogenesis- kaleidoscopic and multi-level reality

Oncogenesis is an extremely complex phenomenon. The mechanisms by which cancer is induced is only partially known. Consequently, therapeutic targets may be uncertain and results are often unsatisfactory. The purpose of this paper is to develop a trans-level and multiple transdisciplinary perspective describing the kaleidoscopic reality of oncogenesis. This manner of understanding oncogenesis as a complex process characterized by a non-linear dynamic, far from equilibrium and with unpredictable evolution, transcends the classical perspective and requires a paradigm shift. This approach is also facilitated by recent studies that focus on group phenomena, with emerging behaviors in a continuous phase transition. Biological systems, and obviously the human organism, express this type of behavior with critical self-organizing valences in the context of a genome - mesotope (environment) - phenotype interaction. For example, nature has transposed in the ecosystem, among other things, the performance pattern of its mineral history represented by the dynamic energy-matter-information unit (the principle of invariance). And multi-cell biological systems in the phylogenetic tree crown have multiple directed aerobic metabolisms in accordance with specific functions. Cancers, in turn, have a hybrid (anaerobic and aerobic) and unidirectional metabolism whose only and ultimate reason is the survival of the malignant cell. Understanding the transdisciplinary reality of oncogenesis offers novel development paths for new therapeutic strategies compared to current ones which have relatively limited efficiency

Bio-Communication of Bacteria and its Evolutionary Interrelations to Natural Genome Editing Competences of Viruses

Communicative competences enable bacteria to develop, organise and coordinate rich social life with a great variety of behavioral patterns even in which they organise themselves like multicellular organisms. They have existed for almost four billion years and still survive, being part of the most dramatic changes in evolutionary history such as DNA invention, cellular life, invention of nearly all protein types, partial constitution of eukaryotic cells, vertical colonisation of all eukaryotes, high adaptability through horizontal gene transfer and co-operative multispecies colonisation of all ecological niches. Recent research demonstrates that these bacterial competences derive from the aptitude of viruses for natural genome editing. 
	In contrast to a book which would be the appropriate space to outline in depth all communicative pathways inherent in bacterial life in this current article I want to give an overview for a broader readership over the great variety of bacterial bio-communication: In a first step I describe how they interpret and coordinate, what semiochemical vocabulary they share and which goals they try to reach. In a second stage I describe the main categories of sign-mediated interactions between bacterial and non-bacterial organisms, and between bacteria of the same or related species. In a third stage I will focus on the relationship between bacteria and their obligate settlers, i.e. viruses. We will see that bacteria are important hosts for multiviral colonisation and virally-determined order of nucleic acid sequences.

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Evolution of substrate specificity in a retained enzyme driven by gene loss.

The connection between gene loss and the functional adaptation of retained proteins is still poorly understood. We apply phylogenomics and metabolic modeling to detect bacterial species that are evolving by gene loss, with the finding that Actinomycetaceae genomes from human cavities are undergoing sizable reductions, including loss of L-histidine and L-tryptophan biosynthesis. We observe that the dual-substrate phosphoribosyl isomerase A or priA gene, at which these pathways converge, appears to coevolve with the occurrence of trp and his genes. Characterization of a dozen PriA homologs shows that these enzymes adapt from bifunctionality in the largest genomes, to a monofunctional, yet not necessarily specialized, inefficient form in genomes undergoing reduction. These functional changes are accomplished via mutations, which result from relaxation of purifying selection, in residues structurally mapped after sequence and X-ray structural analyses. Our results show how gene loss can drive the evolution of substrate specificity from retained enzymes