1. |
- Andersson, Linda, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Glucosylceramide synthase deficiency in the heart compromises β1-adrenergic receptor trafficking
- 2021
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Ingår i: European Heart Journal. - : Oxford University Press. - 0195-668X .- 1522-9645. ; 42:43, s. 4481-4492
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AIMS: Cardiac injury and remodelling are associated with the rearrangement of cardiac lipids. Glycosphingolipids are membrane lipids that are important for cellular structure and function, and cardiac dysfunction is a characteristic of rare monogenic diseases with defects in glycosphingolipid synthesis and turnover. However, it is not known how cardiac glycosphingolipids regulate cellular processes in the heart. The aim of this study is to determine the role of cardiac glycosphingolipids in heart function.METHODS AND RESULTS: Using human myocardial biopsies, we showed that the glycosphingolipids glucosylceramide and lactosylceramide are present at very low levels in non-ischaemic human heart with normal function and are elevated during remodelling. Similar results were observed in mouse models of cardiac remodelling. We also generated mice with cardiomyocyte-specific deficiency in Ugcg, the gene encoding glucosylceramide synthase (hUgcg-/- mice). In 9- to 10-week-old hUgcg-/- mice, contractile capacity in response to dobutamine stress was reduced. Older hUgcg-/- mice developed severe heart failure and left ventricular dilatation even under baseline conditions and died prematurely. Using RNA-seq and cell culture models, we showed defective endolysosomal retrograde trafficking and autophagy in Ugcg-deficient cardiomyocytes. We also showed that responsiveness to β-adrenergic stimulation was reduced in cardiomyocytes from hUgcg-/- mice and that Ugcg knockdown suppressed the internalization and trafficking of β1-adrenergic receptors.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that cardiac glycosphingolipids are required to maintain β-adrenergic signalling and contractile capacity in cardiomyocytes and to preserve normal heart function.
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2. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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A cyanobacterial gene in nonphotosynthetic protists : an early chloroplast acquisition in eukaryotes?
- 2002
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 12:2, s. 115-119
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the incorporation of mitochondria and chloroplasts (plastids) into the eukaryotic cell by endosymbiosis, genes have been transferred from the organellar genomes to the nucleus of the host, via an ongoing process known as endosymbiotic gene transfer. Accordingly, in photosynthetic eukaryotes, nuclear genes with cyanobacterial affinity are believed to have originated from endosymbiotic gene transfer from chloroplasts. Analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome has shown that a significant fraction (2%-9%) of the nuclear genes have such an endosymbiotic origin. Recently, it was argued that 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (gnd)-the second enzyme in the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway-was one such example. Here we show that gnd genes with cyanobacterial affinity also are present in several nonphotosynthetic protistan lineages, such as Heterolobosea, Apicomplexa, and parasitic Heterokonta. Current data cannot definitively resolve whether these groups acquired the gnd gene by primary and/or secondary endosymbiosis or via an independent lateral gene transfer event. Nevertheless, our data suggest that chloroplasts were introduced into eukaryotes much earlier than previously thought and that several major groups of heterotrophic eukaryotes have secondarily lost photosynthetic plastids.
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3. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-
(författare)
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Double peaks reveal rare diplomonad sex
- 2012
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Ingår i: Trends in Parasitology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1471-4922 .- 1471-5007. ; 28:2, s. 46-52
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diplomonads, single-celled eukaryotes, are unusual in having two nuclei. Each nucleus contains two copies of the genome and is transcriptionally active. It has long been assumed that diplomonads in general and Giardia intestinalis in particular are asexual. Genomic and population genetic data now challenge that assumption and extensive allelic sequence heterogeneity has been reported in some but not all examined diplomonad lineages. Here it is argued, in contrast to common assumptions, that allelic differences indicate recent sexual events, and isolates that have divided asexually for many generations have lost their allelic variation owing to within-cell recombination. Consequently, directed studies of the allelic sequence heterogeneity in diverse diplomonad lineages are likely to reveal details about the enigmatic diplomonad sexual life cycle.
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4. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Evolutionary analyses of the small subunit of glutamate synthase : gene order conservation, gene fusions, and prokaryote-to-eukaryote lateral gene transfers
- 2002
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Ingår i: Eukaryotic Cell. - 1535-9778 .- 1535-9786. ; 1:2, s. 304-310
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lateral gene transfer has been identified as an important mode of genome evolution within prokaryotes. Except for the special case of gene transfer from organelle genomes to the eukaryotic nucleus, only a few cases of lateral gene transfer involving eukaryotes have been described. Here we present phylogenetic and gene order analyses on the small subunit of glutamate synthase (encoded by gltD) and its homologues, including the large subunit of sulfide dehydrogenase (encoded by sudA). The scattered distribution of the sudA and sudB gene pair and the phylogenetic analysis strongly suggest that lateral gene transfer was involved in the propagation of the genes in the three domains of life. One of these transfers most likely occurred between a prokaryote and an ancestor of diplomonad protists. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyses indicate that the gene for the small subunit of glutamate synthase was transferred from a low-GC gram-positive bacterium to a common ancestor of animals, fungi, and plants. Interestingly, in both examples, the eukaryotes encode a single gene that corresponds to a conserved operon structure in prokaryotes. Our analyses, together with several recent publications, show that lateral gene transfers from prokaryotes to unicellular eukaryotes occur with appreciable frequency. In the case of the genes for sulfide dehydrogenase, the transfer affected only a limited group of eukaryotes--the diplomonads--while the transfer of the glutamate synthase gene probably happened earlier in evolution and affected a wider range of eukaryotes.
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5. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-
(författare)
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Evolutionary genomics : is Buchnera a bacterium or an organelle?
- 2000
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 10:23, s. R866-R868
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first genome sequence of an intracellular bacterial symbiont of a eukaryotic cell has been determined. The Buchnera genome shares features with the genomes of both intracellular pathogenic bacteria and eukaryotic organelles, and it may represent an intermediate between the two.
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6. |
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7. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Genomics. Are there bugs in our genome?
- 2001
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 292:5523, s. 1848-1850
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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8. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Phylogenetic analyses of diplomonad genes reveal frequent lateral gene transfers affecting eukaryotes
- 2003
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 13:2, s. 94-104
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Lateral gene transfer (LGT) is an important evolutionary mechanism among prokaryotes. The situation in eukaryotes is less clear; the human genome sequence failed to give strong support for any recent transfers from prokaryotes to vertebrates, yet a number of LGTs from prokaryotes to protists (unicellular eukaryotes) have been documented. Here, we perform a systematic analysis to investigate the impact of LGT on the evolution of diplomonads, a group of anaerobic protists.RESULTS: Phylogenetic analyses of 15 genes present in the genome of the Atlantic Salmon parasite Spironucleus barkhanus and/or the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia show that most of these genes originated via LGT. Half of the genes are putatively involved in processes related to an anaerobic lifestyle, and this finding suggests that a common ancestor, which most probably was aerobic, of Spironucleus and Giardia adapted to an anaerobic environment in part by acquiring genes via LGT from prokaryotes. The sources of the transferred diplomonad genes are found among all three domains of life, including other eukaryotes. Many of the phylogenetic reconstructions show eukaryotes emerging in several distinct regions of the tree, strongly suggesting that LGT not only involved diplomonads, but also involved other eukaryotic groups.CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that LGT is a significant evolutionary mechanism among diplomonads in particular and protists in general. These findings provide insights into the evolution of biochemical pathways in early eukaryote evolution and have important implications for studies of eukaryotic genome evolution and organismal relationships. Furthermore, "fusion" hypotheses for the origin of eukaryotes need to be rigorously reexamined in the light of these results.
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9. |
- Andersson, Jan O, 1971-
(författare)
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Phylogenomic approaches underestimate eukaryotic gene transfer
- 2012
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Ingår i: Mobile Genetic Elements. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2159-256X. ; 2:1, s. 59-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phylogenomic approaches have shown that eukaryotes acquire genes via gene transfer. However, there are two fundamental problems for most of these analyses; only transfers from prokaryotes are analyzed and the screening procedures applied assume that gene transfer is rare for eukaryotes. Directed studies of the impact of gene transfer on diverse eukaryotic lineages produce a much more complex picture. Many gene families are affected by multiple transfer events from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, and transfers between eukaryotic lineages are routinely detected. This suggests that the assumptions applied in traditional phylogenomic approaches are too naïve and result in many false negatives. This issue was recently addressed by identifying and analyzing the evolutionary history of 49 patchily distributed proteins shared between Dictyostelium and bacteria. The vast majority of these gene families showed strong indications of gene transfers, both between and within the three domains of life. However, only one of these was previously reported as a gene transfer candidate using a traditional phylogenomic approach. This clearly illustrates that more realistic assumptions are urgently needed in genome-wide studies of eukaryotic gene transfer.
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10. |
- Doolittle, W F, et al.
(författare)
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How big is the iceberg of which organellar genes in nuclear genomes are but the tip?
- 2003
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Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 358:1429, s. 39-58; discussion 57
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As more and more complete bacterial and archaeal genome sequences become available, the role of lateral gene transfer (LGT) in shaping them becomes more and more clear. Over the long term, it may be the dominant force, affecting most genes in most prokaryotes. We review the history of LGT, suggesting reasons why its prevalence and impact were so long dismissed. We discuss various methods purporting to measure the extent of LGT, and evidence for and against the notion that there is a core of never-exchanged genes shared by all genomes, from which we can deduce the "true" organismal tree. We also consider evidence for, and implications of, LGT between prokaryotes and phagocytic eukaryotes.
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