[en] Thylakoid membranes (TM) in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts host the light-dependent reactions of oxygenic photosynthesis. Gloeobacterales, the earliest-diverging cyanobacterial lineage, lack TM and perform photosynthesis in the cytoplasmic membrane (CM), representing an ancestral state relative to other cyanobacteria (Phycobacteria). This study investigates the evolutionary origin of TM. Phylogenomic analyses were performed across a phylogenetically diverse set of cyanobacteria, including extensive representation of basal lineages (Gloeobacterales, Thermostichales, Gloeomargaritales, and Pseudanabaenales), as well as micro- and macrocyanobacteria, using orthologous proteins involved in membrane dynamics and photosystem II (PSII) assembly, together with structural modeling using AlphaFold3. We identified two candidate proteins associated with membrane trafficking that may contribute to TM biogenesis, including the SPFH (Stomatin, Prohibitin, Flotillin, en HflK/C) family member Slr1106, proposed to have been acquired by lateral gene transfer. Analysis of 36 PSII assembly factors revealed modifications in late-stage assembly, notably in manganese homeostasis. Structural changes in the YidC translocase may have facilitated the relocation of linear electron transfer components from the CM to TM. Altogether, these phylogenetic and functional prediction analyses provide new insight into the molecular innovations that led to TM emergence, including membrane trafficking systems, PSII assembly changes, and protein targeting adaptations.
Research Center/Unit :
InBios - Integrative Biological Sciences - ULiège
Disciplines :
Microbiology
Author, co-author :
Hambücken, Louise ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Integrative Biological Sciences (InBioS)
Baurain, Denis ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la vie > Phylogénomique des eucaryotes
Cornet, Luc ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la vie > Phylogénomique des eucaryotes
Language :
English
Title :
Exploring thylakoid emergence: evolution of membrane biogenesis and photosystem II assembly in early-diverging cyanobacteria.
Publication date :
05 June 2026
Journal title :
New Phytologist
ISSN :
0028-646X
eISSN :
1469-8137
Publisher :
Wiley, England
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Tags :
CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif
F.R.S.-FNRS - Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research
Funding number :
FRIA
Funding text :
We thank Edi Sudianto for kindly providing an additional dataset of Cyanobacteriota genomes and the corresponding species tree. This work was supported by a research grant (PDR T.0018.24 OR-OX-PHOT-IN-CYN) from the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) to DB. LC is supported by a mandate from the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS). LH is a FRIA grantee of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS. Computational resources were provided by the Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif (CÉCI), funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS under Grant No. 2.5020.11 and by the Walloon Region. Molecular graphics and analyses performed with UCSF ChimeraX, developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco, with support from National Institutes of Health R01-GM129325 and the Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ChatGPT (OpenAI) was used as a support tool for grammatical correction and text refinement.
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