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  • Unit7 - Evolutionary Significance of Prochloron-1

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    Ananya Tomer
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    1. Prochloron is an oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacterium that lives in obligate symbiosis with colonial ascidians in tropical and subtropical waters. 2. It contains chlorophyll a and b and stacked thylakoids but no phycobilins, and was originally thought to be closely related to the chloroplasts of plants. 3. However, molecular studies do not support this relationship or the monophyly of prochlorophytes, suggesting chlorophyll b evolved independently in these lineages. Prochloron and related cyanobacteria are now considered to belong to the cyanobacterial division.

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    Unit7_Evolutionary significance of Prochloron-1

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    1. Prochloron is an oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacterium that lives in obligate symbiosis with colonial ascidians in tropical and subtropical waters. 2. It contains chlorophyll a and b and stacked thylakoids but no phycobilins, and was originally thought to be closely related to the chloroplasts of plants. 3. However, molecular studies do not support this relationship or the monophyly of prochlorophytes, suggesting chlorophyll b evolved independently in these lineages. Prochloron and related cyanobacteria are now considered to belong to the cyanobacterial division.

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    189 views11 pages

    Unit7 - Evolutionary Significance of Prochloron-1

    Uploaded by

    Ananya Tomer
    1. Prochloron is an oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacterium that lives in obligate symbiosis with colonial ascidians in tropical and subtropical waters. 2. It contains chlorophyll a and b and stacked thylakoids but no phycobilins, and was originally thought to be closely related to the chloroplasts of plants. 3. However, molecular studies do not support this relationship or the monophyly of prochlorophytes, suggesting chlorophyll b evolved independently in these lineages. Prochloron and related cyanobacteria are now considered to belong to the cyanobacterial division.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 11

    Evolutionary significance of

    Prochloron
    • Prochloron is a relatively large cyanobacterium often
    existing in symbioses with tunicates (Lewin and Cheng,
    1989). It synthesizes chlorophyll a and b as light-harvesting
    pigments. It is an example of the prochlorophytes, a
    polyphyletic group of cyanobacteria that have adopted the
    use of these pigments.
    Evolutionary significance of Prochloron
    • The discovery of Prochloron was exciting as it was thought
    to be the ancestor of the chloroplasts of green algae and
    land plants, sharing with them the presence of chlorophyll
    a and b and stacked thylakoids but no phycobilins.

    • This oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacterium lives in


    obligate symbiosis with colonial ascidians inhabiting
    tropical/subtropical waters and free-living Prochloron cells
    have never been recorded so far.
    • Host ascidians bearing Prochloron cells are found in
    four genera of the family Didemnidae,
    namely, Didemnum, Trididemnum, Lissoclinum,
    and Diplosoma (Yokobiri et al. 2006).
    1. Prochloron is an oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacterium which lives
    in obligate symbiosis with colonial ascidians inhabiting
    tropical/subtropical waters

    2. Prochloron (meaning ‘primitive green thing’) is a green cyanophyte and


    it has chlorophyll a and b and stacked thylakoids but no phycobilins

    3. It is a marine, coccoid Cyanophycean alga with pigments chlorophyll a


    and chlorophyll b (lacking any phycobilins) which live as extracellular
    symbionts within tropical and subtropical colonial ascidians (sea-squirts)

    4. Prochloron was thought to represent the missing link between


    prokaryotic algae and green chloroplasts
    5. To understand the evolutionary significance of Prochloron, DNA-DNA
    hybridization, analysis of the DNA-dependant RNA polymerase gene and
    comparing 16S rRNA gene were done.

    6. Molecular phylogeny studies have not supported the close relationship


    between Prochloron and the chloroplasts of green plants nor the monophyly
    of the genera of the Prochlorophyta to which Prochloron belong.

    Prochloron and the other prochlorophytes are usually attributed to the


    members of the division Cyanobacteria in recent years, supposing that
    chlorophyll b developed independently in each lineage. The phylogeny
    inferred from genes for chlorophyll b synthesis implied a common ancestor of
    cyanobacteria, chlorophyll-b containing prokaryotes, and green algae and
    plants, assuming the subsequent multiple losses of chlorophyll b or
    phycobilins.
    7. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the
    prochlorophytes are a polyphyletic group within the
    cyanobacterial radiation, supporting the view that the ability
    to synthesize chlorophyll b evolved several times separately
    with consequent loss of the ability to synthesize
    phycobilins. However, considering mounting biochemical and
    molecular evidence it seems likely that horizontal gene
    transfer may account for the similarity between the
    chlorophyll b synthesis genes in these organisms.
    8. Some scientists observe that the vertical transmission of
    Prochloron cells by the ascidian larvae poses the possibility of
    co-evolution between the symbiont and its host. The
    ascidian Prochloron symbiosis system is probably maintained
    by both vertical and horizontal transmission of the
    photosymbionts, and the vertical transmission should be
    more important for the young colonies.

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