Chlamydia, cyanobiont, or host: who was on top in the ménage à trois?

Abstract

The endosymbiont hypothesis proposes that photosynthate from the cyanobiont was exported to the cytosol of the eukaryote host and polymerized from ADP-glucose into glycogen. Chlamydia-like pathogens are the second major source of foreign genes in Archaeplastida, suggesting that these obligate intracellular pathogens had a significant role during the establishment of endosymbiosis, likely through facilitating the metabolic integration between the endosymbiont and the eukaryotic host. In this opinion article, we propose that a hexose phosphate transporter of chlamydial origin was the first transporter responsible for exporting photosynthate out of the cyanobiont. This connection pre-dates the recruitment of the host-derived carbon translocators on the plastid inner membranes of green and red algae, land plants, and photosynthetic organisms of higher order endosymbiotic origin.

Keywords: endosymbiosis; metabolite transport; plastid evolution.