Life on a Young Planet (44 page)

Chapter 8. The Origins of Eukaryotic Cells

Key References on Eukaryotic Evolution and Phylogeny

Baldauf, S. L., A. J. Roger, I. Wenk-Siefert, and W. F. Doolittle. 2000. A kingdom-level phylogeny of eukaryotes based on combined protein data.
Science
290: 972–977. (The best available guide to the genealogical relationships of eukaryotic organisms.)

Bui, E.T.N., P. J. Bradley, and P. J. Johnson. 1996. A common evolutionary origin for mitochondria and hydrogenosomes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
93: 9651–9656. (A key paper relating hydrogenosomes to mitochondria and proteobacteria.)

Clark, C. G., and A. J. Roger. 1995. Direct evidence for secondary loss of mitochondria in
Entamoeba histolytica
.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
92: 6518–6521. (This paper launched research on mitochondrially derived genes in the nuclei of eukaryotes without mitochondria. As such, it fundamentally changed how we view early eukaryotic evolution.)

Delwiche, C. F. 1999. Tracing the thread of plastid diversity through the tapestry of life.
American Naturalist
154: S164–S177. (An excellent summary of how photosynthesis spread through the Eucarya by primary, secondary, and tertiary endosymbioses.)

Douglas, S., and 9 others. 2001. The highly reduced genome of an enslaved algal nucleus.
Nature
410: 1091–1096. (Genomic approach to the interplay between host and symbiont in the establishment of chloroplasts in a eukaryotic lineage.)

Dyer, B. D., and R. A. Oban. 1994.
Tracing the History of Eukaryotic Cells: The Enigmatic Smile
. Columbia University Press, New York. (Slightly dated but engaging introduction to the ideas of Lynn Margulis.)

Embley, T. M., and R. P. Hirt. 1998. Early branching eukaryotes
? Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
8: 624–629. (A readable summary of recent work on eukaryotic phylogeny, including discussion of—and numerous references to—research on mitochondrial genes in the nuclear genomes of nonmitochondrial eukaryotes.)

Hartman, H., and A. Federov. 2002. The origin of the eukaryotic cell: A genomic investigation.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
99: 1420–1425. (Argues that genes found uniquely in eukaryotes record a third partner in the primordial symbiosis by which eukaryotic cells arose.)

Khakhina, L. N. 1992.
Concepts of Symbiogenesis. A Historical and Critical Account
of the Research of Russian Botanists
. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. (An introduction to the work of Merezhkovsky and other early proponents of the endosymbiotic hypothesis.)

Margulis, L. 1981.
Symbiosis in Cell Evolution
. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco. (The classic statement of Margulis’s views, updated and reissued in 1993.)

Martin, W., and M. Müller. 1998. The hydrogen hypothesis for the first eukaryote.
Nature
392: 37–41. (Martin and Müller’s provocative hypothesis, challenging but stimulating.)

Moreira, D., and P. López-Garcia. 1998. Symbiosis between methanogenic Archaea and δ-Proteobacteria as the origin of eukaryotes: The syntrophic hypothesis.
Journal of Molecular Evolution
47: 517–530. (An independent articulation of the idea that eukaryotic biology reflects an early symbiosis between archeans and proteobacteria; differs in detail from the Martin-Müller hypothesis.)

Palmer, J. D. 1997. Organelle genomes: Going, going, gone!
Nature
275: 790–791. (A readable review (with references) of research supporting the hypothesis that hydrogenosomes are mitochondria-like endosymbionts that lost all their genes.)

Roger, A. J. 1999. Reconstructing early events in eukaryotic evolution.
The American Naturalist
154, supplement: S146–S163. (A good summary of molecular approaches to eukaryotic evolution.)

Sagan, L. 1967. On the origin of mitosing cells.
Journal of Theoretical Biology
14: 225–274. (Lynn Margulis’s—as Lynn Sagan—original essay on the endosymbiotic origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Controversial at the time, but now regarded as a classic.)

Sogin, M. 1997. History assignment: When was the mitochondrion founded
? Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
7: 792–799. (Stimulating essay on alternative hypotheses for the origin of mitochondria in eukaryotic cells.)

Sogin, M. L., J. H. Gunderson, H. J. Elwood, R. A. Alonso, and D. A. Peattie. 1989. Phylogenetic meaning of the kingdom concept—an unusual ribosomal-RNA from
Giardia lamblia
.
Science
243: 75–77. (The classic discussion of eukaryotic phylogeny as inferred from small-subunit ribosomal RNA genes.)

Thomas, L. 1979.
The Medusa and the Snail
. Viking Press, New York. (Source of Thomas’s clever quote about committees and life.)

Chapter 9. Fossils of Early Eukaryotes

Key References on Doushantuo Geology and Paleontology

Most of the papers listed here were written in English. These publications will provide the interested reader with references to the extensive Chinese literature.

Barfod, G. H., F. Albarède, A. H. Knoll, S. Xiao, J. Baker, and R. Frei. 2002. New Lu-Hf and Pb-Pb age constraints on the earliest animal fossils.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
201: 203–212.

Chen, M., and Z. Zhao. 1992. Macrofossils from upper Doushantuo Formation in eastern Yangtze Gorges, China.
Acta Palaeontologica Sinica
31: 513–529.

Li, C.-W., J.-Y. Chen, and T.-E. Hua. 1998. Precambrian sponges with cellular structures.
Science
279: 879–882.

Steiner, M. 1994. Die neoproterozoischen Megalgen Südchinas.
Berliner geowis-senschaftliche Abhandlungen (E)
15: 1–146.

Xiao, S., and A. H. Knoll. 2000a. Phosphatized animal embryos from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation at Weng’an, Guizhou, South China.
Journal of Paleontology
74: 767–788.

Xiao, S., and A. H. Knoll. 2000b. Eumetazoan fossils in terminal Proterozoic phosphorites?
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
97: 13684–13689.

Xiao, S., M. Yuan, and A. H. Knoll. 1998. Morphological reconstruction
of Maiohephyton bifurcatum
, a possible brown alga from the Doushantuo Formation (Neoproterozoic), South China, and its implicatiuons for stramenopile evolution.
Journal of Paleontology
72: 1072–1086.

Xiao, S., X. Yuan, M. Steiner, and A. H. Knoll. 2002. Carbonaceous macrofossils in a terminal Proterozoic shale: A systematic reassessment of the Miaohe biota, South China.
Journal of Paleontology
76: 347–376.

Yuan, X., and H. J. Hofmann. 1998. New microfossils from the Neoproterozoic (Sinian) Doushantuo Formation, Weng’an, Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
Alcheringa
22: 189–222.

Yuan, X., S. Xiao, L. Yin, A. H. Knoll, C. Zhao, and X. Mu. 2002.
Doushantuo Fossils: Life on the Eve of Animal Radiation.
University of Science and Technology of China Press, Beijing. (Written in Chinese, but worth seeking out for its many color photos of Doushantuo fossils.)

Zhang, Y. 1989. Multicellular thallophytes with differentiated tissues from late Proterozoic phosphate rocks of South China.
Lethaia
22: 113–132.

Zhang, Y., L. Yin, S. Xiao, and A. H. Knoll. 1998. Permineralized fossils from the terminal Proterozoic Doushantuo Formation, South China.
Paleontological Society Memoir
50: 1–52.

Key references on the biology of Proterozoic eukaryotes

Anbar, A., and A. H. Knoll. 2002. Proterozoic ocean chemistry and evolution: A bioinorganic bridge?
Science
, 297: 1137–1142. (Explores the consequences of sulfidic deep oceans for trace element chemistry, primary production, and, hence, algal evolution in Proterozoic oceans.)

Butterfield, N. J. 2000.
Bangiomorpha pubescens
n. gen., n. sp; implications for the evolution of sex, multicellularity, and the Mesoproterozoic/Neoproterozoic radiation of eukaryotes.
Paleobiology
26: 386–404. (The oldest eukaryotic fossils that can be assigned to an extant algal clade.)

Butterfield, N. J., A. H. Knoll, and K. Swett. 1994. See references for
chapter 3
.

Fedonkin, M. A., and E. L. Yochelson. 2002. Middle Proterozoic (1.5 Ga)
Horodyskia moniliformis
Yochelson and Fedonkin, the oldest known tissuegrade colonial eucaryote.
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology
94: 1–29. (Documents “string-of-beads” macrofossils in mid-Proterozoic rocks from North America.)

German, T. N. 1990.
Organic world one billion years ago
. Nauka, Leningrad, 52 pp. (A well-illustrated, bilingual guide to early eukaryotic fossils in Siberian rocks.)

Grey, K., and I. R. Williams. 1990. Problematic bedding-plane markings from the middle Proterozoic Manganese Subgroup, Bangemall Basin, Western Australia.
Precambrian Research
46: 307–327. (A well-illustrated account of the macroscopic “string-of-beads” fossils impressed into mid-Proterozoic sandstone bedding surfaces.)

Hofmann, H. J. 1994. Problematic carbonaceous compressions (“metaphytes” and “worms”), pp. 342–358 in S. Bengtson, editor,
Early Life on Earth
. Columbia University Press, New York. (An authoritative account of the macroscopic compressions found in Proterozoic rocks.)

Javaux, E., A. H. Knoll, and M. R. Walter. 2001. Ecological and morphological complexity in early eukaryotic ecosystems.
Nature
412: 66–69. (Documents the nature and distribution of eukaryotic fossils in a mid-Proterozoic seaway.)

Knoll, A. H. 1994. Proterozoic and Early Cambrian protists: Evidence for accelerating evolutionary tempo.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
91: 6743–6750. (Documents the rise in diversity and accelerating tempo of evolution in late Proterozoic eukaryotes.)

Porter, S. M., and A. H. Knoll. 2000. Testate amoebae in the Neoproterozoic Era: Evidence from vase-shaped microfossils in the Chuar Group, Grand Canyon.
Paleobiology
26: 360–385. (Demonstrates the relationship between vase-shaped microfossils and living protozoans called testate amoebas.)

Shen, Y., D. E., Canfield, and A. H. Knoll. 2002. The chemistry of mid-Proterozoic oceans: Evidence from the McArthur Basin, northern Australia.
American Journal of Science
302: 81–109. (Provides geochemical evidence of sulfidic deep waters in 1,730–1,640-million-year-old ocean basins.)

Summons, R. E., S. C. Brassell, G. Eglinton, E. Eaavans, R. J. Horodyski, N. Robinson, and D. M. Ward. 1988. Distinctive hydrocarbon biomarkers from fossiliferous sediment of the late Proterozoic Walcott Member, Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, Arizona.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
52: 2625–2637. (Important study of eukaryotic biomarker molecules in late Proterozoic rocks.)

Swift, J. 1733. From
Poetry, A Rhapsody
, reprinted in
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
, tenth edition (1919). Little, Brown, Boston. (Published source of Swift’s famous verse.)

Vidal, G. 1976. Late Precambrian microfossils from the Visingsö beds in southern Sweden.
Fossils and Strata
9: 1–57. (The paper that ignited global interest in Proterozoic biostratigraphy.)