{"title":"Quantifying the evolutionary paths to endomembranes.","authors":"Paul E Schavemaker, Michael Lynch","doi":"10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115533","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Eukaryotes exhibit a complex and dynamic internal meshwork of membranes-the endomembrane system-used to insert membrane proteins and ingest food. Verbal models explaining the origin of endomembranes abound, but quantitative considerations of fitness are lacking. Drawing on quantitative data on endomembranes allows for the derivation of two biologically grounded analytical models of endomembrane evolution that quantify organismal fitness: (1) vesicle-based uptake of small nutrient molecules, pinocytosis, and (2) vesicle-based insertion of membrane proteins, proto-endoplasmic reticulum. Surprisingly, pinocytosis of small-molecule nutrients does not provide a net fitness gain under biologically sensible parameter ranges, explaining why pinocytosis is primarily used for protein uptake in contemporary organisms. The proto-endoplasmic reticulum does provide net fitness gains, making it the more likely candidate for initiating the endomembrane system. With modifications, the approach developed here can be used more generally to understand the present-day endomembrane system and illuminate the origin of the eukaryotic cell.</p>","PeriodicalId":9798,"journal":{"name":"Cell reports","volume":"44 4","pages":"115533"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cell reports","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115533","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Eukaryotes exhibit a complex and dynamic internal meshwork of membranes-the endomembrane system-used to insert membrane proteins and ingest food. Verbal models explaining the origin of endomembranes abound, but quantitative considerations of fitness are lacking. Drawing on quantitative data on endomembranes allows for the derivation of two biologically grounded analytical models of endomembrane evolution that quantify organismal fitness: (1) vesicle-based uptake of small nutrient molecules, pinocytosis, and (2) vesicle-based insertion of membrane proteins, proto-endoplasmic reticulum. Surprisingly, pinocytosis of small-molecule nutrients does not provide a net fitness gain under biologically sensible parameter ranges, explaining why pinocytosis is primarily used for protein uptake in contemporary organisms. The proto-endoplasmic reticulum does provide net fitness gains, making it the more likely candidate for initiating the endomembrane system. With modifications, the approach developed here can be used more generally to understand the present-day endomembrane system and illuminate the origin of the eukaryotic cell.
期刊介绍：
Cell Reports publishes high-quality research across the life sciences and focuses on new biological insight as its primary criterion for publication. The journal offers three primary article types: Reports, which are shorter single-point articles, research articles, which are longer and provide deeper mechanistic insights, and resources, which highlight significant technical advances or major informational datasets that contribute to biological advances. Reviews covering recent literature in emerging and active fields are also accepted.
The Cell Reports Portfolio includes gold open-access journals that cover life, medical, and physical sciences, and its mission is to make cutting-edge research and methodologies available to a wide readership.
The journal's professional in-house editors work closely with authors, reviewers, and the scientific advisory board, which consists of current and future leaders in their respective fields. The advisory board guides the scope, content, and quality of the journal, but editorial decisions are independently made by the in-house scientific editors of Cell Reports.
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