PMID- 20736348
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20101028
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 1091-6490 (Electronic)
IS  - 0027-8424 (Print)
IS  - 0027-8424 (Linking)
VI  - 107
IP  - 37
DP  - 2010 Sep 14
TI  - Nephromyces, a beneficial apicomplexan symbiont in marine animals.
PG  - 16190-5
LID - 10.1073/pnas.1002335107 [doi]
AB  - With malaria parasites (Plasmodium spp.), Toxoplasma, and many other species of 
      medical and veterinary importance its iconic representatives, the protistan 
      phylum Apicomplexa has long been defined as a group composed entirely of 
      parasites and pathogens. We present here a report of a beneficial apicomplexan: 
      the mutualistic marine endosymbiont Nephromyces. For more than a century, the 
      peculiar structural and developmental features of Nephromyces, and its unusual 
      habitat, have thwarted characterization of the phylogenetic affinities of this 
      eukaryotic microbe. Using short-subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequences as key 
      evidence, with sequence identity confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization 
      (FISH), we show that Nephromyces, originally classified as a chytrid fungus, is 
      actually an apicomplexan. Inferences from rDNA data are further supported by the 
      several apicomplexan-like structural features in Nephromyces, including 
      especially the strong resemblance of Nephromyces infective stages to apicomplexan 
      sporozoites. The striking emergence of the mutualistic Nephromyces from a 
      quintessentially parasitic clade accentuates the promise of this organism, and 
      the three-partner symbiosis of which it is a part, as a model for probing the 
      factors underlying the evolution of mutualism, pathogenicity, and infectious 
      disease.
FAU - Saffo, Mary Beth
AU  - Saffo MB
AD  - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
      MA 02138-2902, USA. mbsaffo@post.harvard.edu
FAU - McCoy, Adam M
AU  - McCoy AM
FAU - Rieken, Christopher
AU  - Rieken C
FAU - Slamovits, Claudio H
AU  - Slamovits CH
LA  - eng
SI  - GENBANK/HM469375
SI  - GENBANK/HM469376
SI  - GENBANK/HM469377
SI  - GENBANK/HM469378
SI  - GENBANK/HM469379
SI  - GENBANK/HM469380
SI  - GENBANK/HM469381
SI  - GENBANK/HM469382
SI  - GENBANK/HM469383
SI  - GENBANK/HM469384
GR  - 5G 13LM-009396-02/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
DEP - 20100824
PL  - United States
TA  - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
JT  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JID - 7505876
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Apicomplexa/*physiology/ultrastructure
MH  - Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
MH  - Molecular Sequence Data
MH  - Phylogeny
MH  - *Symbiosis
MH  - Toxoplasma/physiology
MH  - Urochordata/*physiology/ultrastructure
PMC - PMC2941302
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2010/08/26 06:00
MHDA- 2010/10/29 06:00
PMCR- 2011/03/14
CRDT- 2010/08/26 06:00
PHST- 2010/08/26 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/08/26 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/10/29 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2011/03/14 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 1002335107 [pii]
AID - 201002335 [pii]
AID - 10.1073/pnas.1002335107 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Sep 14;107(37):16190-5. doi: 
      10.1073/pnas.1002335107. Epub 2010 Aug 24.