Abstract
The evolutionary position of Giardia lamblia has been challenged in recent years. Comparison of the snoRNAs identified from Archaea and unicellular eukaryotes shows that G. lamblia snoRNAs are more similar in most respects to the counterparts identified from Dictyostelium discoideum, Plasmodium falciparum, fungi, and some metazoans, remarkably differently from those of Euglenozoa protozoans. We propose that G. lamblia emerged somewhat later than Trypanosoma and Euglena during the early evolution of “excavata” eukaryotes.
References
Aspegren A, Hinas A, Larsson P, Larsson A, Söderbom F (2004) Novelnon-coding RNAs in Dictyostelium discoideum and their expression during development. Nucleic Acids Res 32:4646–4656
Chakrabarti K, Pearson M, Grate L, Sterne-Weiler T, Deans J, Donohue JP, MJr A (2007) Structural RNAs of known and unknown function identified in malaria parasites by comparative genomics and RNA analysis. RNA 13:1923–1939
Chen XS, Rozhdestvensky TS, Collins LJ, Schmitz J, Penny D (2007) Combined experimental and computational approach to identify non-protein-coding RNAs in the deep-branching eukaryote Giardia intestinalis. Nucleic Acids Res 35:4619–4628
Edlind TD, JLiGS V, Vodkin MH, McLaughlin GL, Katiyar SK (1996) Phylogenetic analysis of beta-tubulin sequences from amitochondrial protozoa. Mol Phylogenet Evol 5:359–367
Gaspin C, Cavaillé J, Erauso G, Bachellerie JP (2000) Archaeal homologs of eukaryotic methylation guide Small neucleolar RNAs: lessons from the Pyrococcus genomes. J Mol Biol 297:895–906
He D, Wen JF, Chen WQ, Lu SQ, Xinde D (2005) Identification, characteristic and phylogenetic analysis of type II DNA topoisomerase gene in Giardia lamblia. Cell Res 15:474–482
Jiménez-García LF, Zavala G, Chávez-Munguía B, Ramos-Godínez MD, López-Velázquez G, Segura-Valdez MD, Montañez C, Hehl AB, Argüello-García R, Ortega-Pierres G (2008) Identification of nucleoli in the early branching protist Giardia duodenalis. Int J Parasitol 38:1297–1304
Kabnick KS, Peattie DA (1991) Giardia: a missing link between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Am Sci 79:36–43
Keeling PJ, Burger G, Durnford DG, Lang BF, Lee RW, Pearlman RE, Roger AJ, Gray MW (2005) The tree of eukaryotes. Trends Ecol Evol 20:670–676
Liang XH, Uliel S, Hury A, Barth S, Doniger T, Unger R, Michaeli SA (2005) A genome-wide analysis of C/D and H/ACA-like small nucleolar RNAs in Trypanosoma brucei reveals a trypanosome-specific pattern of rRNA modification. RNA 11:619–645
Liang XH, Hury A, Hoze E, Uliel S, Myslyuk I, Apatoff A, Unger R, Michaeli S (2007) Genome-wide analysis of C/D and H/ACA-like small nucleolar RNAs in Leishmania major indicates conservation among trypanosomatids in the repertoire and in their rRNA targets. Eukaryot Cell 6:361–377
Luo J, Zhou H, Chen CJ, Li Y, Chen YQ, Qu LH (2006) Identification and evolutionary implication of four novel box H/ACA snoRNAs from Giardia lamblia. Chin Sci Bull 51:2451–2456
Russell AG, Schnare MN, Gray MW (2006) A large collection of compact Box C/D snoRNAs and their isoforms in Euglena gracilis: structural, functional and evolutionary insights. J Mol Biol 357:1548–1565
Simpson AG, Inagaki Y, Roger AJ (2006) Comprehensive multigene phylogenies of excavate protists reveal the evolutionary positions of primitive eukaryotes. Mol Biol Evol 23:615–625
Simpson AG, Roger AJ (2002) Eukaryotic evolution: getting to the root of the problem. Curr Biol 12:R691–R693
Tang TH, Bachellerie JP, Rozhdestvensky T, Bortolin ML, Huber H, Drungowski M, Elge T, Brosius J, Huttenhofer A (2002) Identification of 86 candidates for small non-messenger RNAs from the Archaea Archaeoglobus fulgidus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:7536–7541
Tang TH, Polacek N, Zywicki M, Huber H, Brugger K, Garrett R, Bachellerie JP, Hüttenhofer A (2005) Identification of novel non-coding RNAs as potential antisense regulators in the Archaea Sulfolobus solfataricus. Mol Microbiol 55:469–481
Tovar J, León-Avila G, Sánchez LB, Sutak R, Tachezy J, van der Giezen M, Hernández M, Müller M, Lucocq JM (2003) Mitochondrial remnant organelles of Giardia function in iron-sulphur protein maturation. Nature 426:172–176
Yang CY, Zhou H, Luo J, Qu LH (2005) Identification of 20 snoRNA-like RNAs from the primitive eukaryote, Giardia lamblia. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 328:1224–1231
Zago MA, Dennis PP, Omer AD (2005) The expanding world of small RNAs in the hyperthermophilic Archaea Sulfolobus solfataricus. Mol Microbiol 55:1812–1828
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the critical review by Dr. Norman A. Gregson (University of London, UK). We apologize to those whose important work could not be cited owing to space constraints. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30570398 and 30870530) and the National Basic Research Program (2005CB724600).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Luo, J., Teng, M., Zhang, GP. et al. Evaluating the evolution of G. lamblia based on the small nucleolar RNAs identified from Archaea and unicellular eukaryotes. Parasitol Res 104, 1543–1546 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1403-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1403-3