RESEARCH ARTICLE Microbial eukaryotes have adapted to hypoxia by horizontal acquisitions of a gene involved in rhodoquinone biosynthesis Courtney W Stairs1†, Laura Eme1†, Sergio A Mun˜ oz-Go´ mez1, Alejandro Cohen2, Graham Dellaire3,4, Jennifer N Shepherd5, James P Fawcett2,6,7, Andrew J Roger1* 1Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; 2Proteomics Core Facility, Life Sciences Research Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; 3Department of Pathology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; 5Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Gonzaga University, Spokane, United States; 6Department of Pharmacology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; 7Department of Surgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada Abstract Under hypoxic conditions, some organisms use an electron transport chain consisting of only complex I and II (CII) to generate the proton gradient essential for ATP production. In these *For correspondence: cases, CII functions as a fumarate reductase that accepts electrons from a low electron potential
[email protected] quinol, rhodoquinol (RQ). To clarify the origins of RQ-mediated fumarate reduction in eukaryotes, Present address: †Department we investigated the origin and function of rquA, a gene encoding an RQ biosynthetic enzyme. of Cell and Molecular Biology, RquA is very patchily distributed across eukaryotes and bacteria adapted to hypoxia. Phylogenetic Uppasala University, Uppsala, analyses suggest lateral gene transfer (LGT) of rquA from bacteria to eukaryotes occurred at least Sweden twice and the gene was transferred multiple times amongst protists. We demonstrate that RquA Competing interests: The functions in the mitochondrion-related organelles of the anaerobic protist Pygsuia and is correlated authors declare that no with the presence of RQ.