HAP2/GCS1: Mounting evidence of our true biological EVE?

• Published in: PLoS biology 2018-08, Vol.16 (8), p.e3000007-e3000007
• Main Author: Clark, Theodore
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - physiology; Biological Evolution; Biology and Life Sciences; Carrier Proteins - genetics; Carrier Proteins - physiology; Cell fusion; Cell hybridization; Chlamydomonas - physiology; Eukaryota - metabolism; Evolution; Female; Flowering; Genes; Genomes; Germ Cells - physiology; Hap2 protein; Humans; Insects; Lipids; Male; Mammals; Membrane Fusion - physiology; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Membranes; Mode of action; Molecular machines; Ovary - metabolism; Physical Sciences; Plants (botany); Primer; Proteins; Reproduction (biology); Reproduction - physiology; Research and Analysis Methods; Sex; Sexual reproduction; Sperm; Spermatozoa - metabolism; Viral proteins; Viral Proteins - metabolism; Viruses
• ISSN: 1545-7885; 1544-9173; 1545-7885
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000007

Sex has consequences-indeed, where would we be without it? Yet for all its importance, remarkably little is known about how sex evolved, why it has persisted, or even what mechanisms allow sperm-egg fusion to occur. Fortunately, answers to these questions are beginning to emerge with studies of hapless 2/generative cell specific1 (HAP2/GCS1), a molecular machine that promotes gamete fusion in organisms ranging from protists to flowering plants and insects. In studies by Fedry and colleagues, key structural features of the HAP2 protein are revealed for the first time, lending new insights into its mode of action and reinforcing its relationship to viral proteins that accomplish a similar task and may be intimately linked to the origins of cell-cell fusion events (including sexual reproduction) across evolutionary time.