Polyploidy in haloarchaea: advantages for growth and survival
- The investigated haloarchaeal species, Halobacterium salinarum, Haloferax mediterranei, and H. volcanii, have all been shown to be polyploid. They contain several replicons that have independent copy number regulation, and most have a higher copy number during exponential growth phase than in stationary phase. The possible evolutionary advantages of polyploidy for haloarchaea, most of which have experimental support for at least one species, are discussed. These advantages include a low mutation rate and high resistance toward X-ray irradiation and desiccation, which depend on homologous recombination. For H. volcanii, it has been shown that gene conversion operates in the absence of selection, which leads to the equalization of genome copies. On the other hand, selective forces might lead to heterozygous cells, which have been verified in the laboratory. Additional advantages of polyploidy are survival over geological times in halite deposits as well as at extreme conditions on earth and at simulated Mars conditions. Recently, it was found that H. volcanii uses genomic DNA as genetic material and as a storage polymer for phosphate. In the absence of phosphate, H. volcanii dramatically decreases its genome copy number, thereby enabling cell multiplication, but diminishing the genetic advantages of polyploidy. Stable storage of phosphate is proposed as an alternative driving force for the emergence of DNA in early evolution. Several additional potential advantages of polyploidy are discussed that have not been addressed experimentally for haloarchaea. An outlook summarizes selected current trends and possible future developments.
Author: | Karolin Zerulla, Jörg SoppaORCiD |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-342127 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00274 |
ISSN: | 1664-302X |
Pubmed Id: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24982654 |
Parent Title (English): | Frontiers in microbiology |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Place of publication: | Lausanne |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2014/06/13 |
Date of first Publication: | 2014/06/13 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2014/07/03 |
Tag: | archaea; desiccation; gene conversion; haloferax volcanii; polyploidy; survival |
Volume: | 5 |
Issue: | Article 274 |
Page Number: | 8 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 8 |
Note: | Copyright © 2014 Zerulla and Soppa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
HeBIS-PPN: | 450769976 |
Institutes: | Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte | |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |