Mitochondrial Ancestor Joined Late with Other Bacteria, then Shed Genes

The host cell that engulfed the alpha-proteobacterial ancestor of mitochondria billions of years ago was complex and full of pathways and processes from diverse other bacteria, according to Alexandros Pittis and Toni Gabaldon from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain. It apparently partnered late, as “mito-late,” during eukaryogenesis, and subsequently shed many genes en route to modern times. Details about mito-late appeared 3 March 2016 in Nature (doi:10.1038/nature16941), while details about mitochondrial gene shedding appeared 24 February 2016 in Cell Systems (doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2016.01.013).