Lukas V. F. Novak

Université Paris-Saclay · Ecology, systematics and evolution Unit

The discovery that the protist Monocercomonoides exilis completely lacks mitochondria demonstrates that these organelles are not absolutely essential to eukaryotic cells. However, the degree to which the metabolism and cellular systems of this organism have adapted to the loss of mitochondria is unknown. Here we report an extensive analysis of the...

The discovery that the protist Monocercomonoides exilis completely lacks mitochondria demonstrates that these organelles are not absolutely essential to eukaryotic cells. However, the degree to which the metabolism and cellular systems of this organism have adapted to the loss of mitochondria is unknown. Here we report an extensive analysis of the...

The oxymonad Monocercomonoides exilis was recently reported to be the first eukaryote that has completely lost the mitochondrial compartment. It was proposed that an important prerequisite for such a radical evolutionary step was the acquisition of the SUF Fe-S cluster assembly pathway from prokaryotes, making the mitochondrial ISC pathway dispensa...

Background Multiple prokaryotic lineages use the arginine deiminase (ADI) pathway for anaerobic energy production by arginine degradation. The distribution of this pathway among eukaryotes has been thought to be very limited, with only two specialized groups living in low oxygen environments (Parabasalia and Diplomonadida) known to possess the comp...

The presence of mitochondria and related organelles in every studied eukaryote supports the view that mitochondria are essential cellular components. Here, we report the genome sequence of a microbial eukaryote, the oxymonad Monocercomonoides sp., which revealed that this organism lacks all hallmark mitochondrial proteins. Crucially, the mitochondr...

All eukaryotic organisms contain mitochondria or organelles that evolved from the same endosymbiotic event like classical mitochondria. Organisms inhabiting low oxygen environments often contain mitochondrial derivates known as hydrogenosomes, mitosomes or neutrally as mitochondrion-like organelles. The detailed investigation has shown unexpected e...

The N-terminal parts of protein alignments demonstrating the presence of extension in Trimastix protein relatively to the prokaryotic homologues. (PDF)

The probability of mitochondrial localization of selected Trimastix proteins as predicted by PSORT II, TargetP and Multiloc2 programs. (DOCX)

Immunofluorescence microscopy of two additional Trimastix pyriformis cells. The green signal from antiH-protein (human) co-localizes with red signal from the antiH-protein (Trimastix). The DNA is stained blue with Hoechst. (PDF)