Plastids are widespread and ancient in parasites of the phylum Apicomplexa

Abstract

Current evidence supports the presence of a non-photosynthetic chloroplast-like organelle in several apicomplexan parasites, including Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii. This apicomplexan organelle, referred to here as the plastid, may have been acquired through a primary or secondary endosymbiosis of a photosynthetic organism. Alternatively, apicomplexan plastids may have been acquired through several independent endosymbiotic events, as appears to be the case for the acquisition of chloroplasts by dinoflagellates. The likelihood of multiple origins of an apicomplexan plastid is enhanced by the close evolutionary relatedness of apicomplexan and dinoflagellate taxa. In this study, we have tested the hypothesis that apicomplexan plastids are derived from a single ancient ancestor. Two lines of evidence supporting this hypothesis are presented. First, this study supports the widespread presence of plastid DNA in apicomplexan species. Second, the topologies of the phylogenetic trees derived from plastid and nuclear-encoded rRNA gene sequences suggest the co-evolution of the DNAs localised in these two compartments. Taken together, these data support a single ancient lineage for the plastids of parasites in the phylum Apicomplexa.