William Martin
Short Biography
William Martin is Professor and head of the Institute of Molecular Evolution at the University of Düsseldorf. He studies endosymbiosis, organelles, anaerobic mitochondria, gene transfer, and early evolution. Currently he is working on the use of network approaches to modelling non-treelike processes in evolution, genome evolution in eukaryotic microbes and early biochemical evolution.
Endosymbiosis: cooperation generating novel taxa at the highest level
The “Hydrogen hypothesis” proposes that the first eukaryotic cell resulted from a symbiotic, cooperative relationship between a hydrogen-dependent archaeon (the host), with a primitive eubacterium, the future mitochondrion, based on one cell living from the metabolic endproducts of the other. The origin of eukaryotes is a crucial evolutionary transition because it enabled the evolution of genuinely complex life forms. Endosymbiosis and its corollary mechanism, gene transfer from organelles to the nucleus, have played a central and possibly decisive mechanistic role in that major evolutionary transition. Eukaryotes are not the only example of massive gene transfer between the archaebacterial and eubacterial domains giving rise to novel taxa at higher levels. Increasingly it is becoming clear that processes of physical interaction (cooperation) of cells and the unidirectional transfer of genetic material have been an important factor in the emergence of novel taxa at the highest level.
