BIOL 1010

9/07/11

Evolution of cellular life

-Evolution of cellular life

>Bacteria (The true oldest)

>Archaea (not really the oldest type of bacterium around)

>Eukaryotes (Us)

>The three major domains of the living world

>Bacteria and archaeabacteria lumped together until Woese defined Archaea

(1968)

-Universal features of cellular life

>All extant cells

+Enclosed by a membrane

+Store hereditary information in DNA

+Replicate their DNA using the same basic mechanism

+Use RNA for transcription of DNA

+Translate RNA into protein via tRNA & ribosomes

+Use proteins as catalysts

+Use ATP for free energy

-Prokaryotic Cells

>Bacterial flagellum

>Pilus

>Capsule

>Cell Wall

>Plasma membrane

>Cytoplasm

>Ribosome in cytoplasm
 >DNA

-Eukaryotic Cell: Animal

>Cell membrane

>Read the rest of the goddamned book, 10th grade bio helps

-Eukaryotic Cell: Plant

>READ THE DAMNED BOOK

>Cell wall

>Chloroplasts

>Central Vacuole

-Cells are Complex Systems

>500 common cellular metabolic reactions with many interconnectioins

>Most free living archaea and eubacteria have 1000 to 4000 genes

>Eukaryotes have more genes and variety of organelles: mitochondria, etc

-Cell types at different time periods

>Hadian period led to possibility of proto-cells ~4BYA

>Prokaryotic, 3.5 BYA fossil, but possible start at 3.8 BYA. Conditions were
anaerobic on Earth.

>Archaea

+Extremely small archaea isolated from acid mine drainage in

California

+Archean are thought o arise slightly after bacteria ~3.5 BYA

>What happened for approximately the next 1 BY

+Beginning of anaerobic bacterial photosynthesis about 3.2 BYA

+Aquifex is an example of a living fossil. It has a cyclic photosynthesis

and it is an extremophile growing at 95C

>Photosynthetic bacteria- cyanobacteria

+Prior to oxygenic photosynthesis there were photosynthetic bacteria.

 +In modern photosynthesis, oxygen is utilized as a terminal electron
acceptor. Earliest bacteria used other electron acceptors.

+Cyanobacterial lineage began with cyclic photosynthesis over 3 BYA

and increased in diversity and importance along with ability to use non-cyclic
photosynthesis

>Stromalites and ancient photosynthetic bacteria

+To the left are modern stromatolites found in Australia, thought to be

similar to those of 3 to 3.5 BYA

+To the left are ancient stromatolite fossils where mats of

cyanobacterial cells were flattened and compressed by dissolved minerals and
sediments to give stratified appearance

>Photosynthesis

+No oxygen early because there was no source. Oxygen is highly

reactive.

+Development of oxygenic or non-cyclic photosynthesis (2.5 BYA) led to slow

increase of oxygen present in the atmosphere. This was the start of the Proterozoic
Period.

+Detect oxygen by presence of iron and sulfur oxidized compounds (seen in

fossil deposits).

>Photosynthesis transformed the planet

+O2 energizes almost all existing life

+Without O2 no multicellular plants and animals

+Hence no complex food chains and ecosystems

+Without O2, no ozone, no oceans

+Earth would be like Mars

>Chloroplasts

+Once free living, has its own DNA

>Mitochondria

+Similar to chloroplasts

>When were the first eukaryotic cells formed

 +Kinda hard to find because they were the same size

+But they had lipids in rocks dated 2.5 BYA

+But in the first fossil record comes around 2.1 BYA

>Endosymbiont hypothesis

+Increase in eukaryotic cell size was enhanced by compartentalization

and presence of endosymbionts

+Started from an interaction between a more primitive eukaryotic cell

and an aerobic or photosynthetic bacterium

+Interaction may have been parasitism of a eukaryote by a

prokaryote, or eating a prokaryote by a eukaryote

+Both became mitochondrion or a chloroplast.

>Single celled to multicelled

+Single cells are highly successful and still comprise 50% of total
biomass on earth

+So why proceed further or what is the advantage of multi-cellularity

=Collaboration and division of labor allows new resource

exploitation

>Prokaryotic multicellularity

+Formation of loose associations or colonies of single cells

+Myxobacteria as an example- live in soil on insoluble organic

molecules but form loose clusters of cells that release digestive enzymes that
makes it possible to digest the organic matter

>Edicaran Fauna

+Discovered in 1946 in SE Aussie and in Canada and Namibia

+Fossils represent the most ancient complex organisms on Earth

+Origin and subsequent evolution of many Edicaran groups remains an

enigma