Myelin sheath and cyanobacterial thylakoids as concentric multilamellar structures with similar bioenergetic properties

Abstract

There is a surprisingly high morphological similarity between multilamellar concentric thylakoids in cyanobacteria and the myelin sheath that wraps the nerve axons. Thylakoids are multilamellar structures, which express photosystems I and II, cytochromes and ATP synthase necessary for the light-dependent reaction of photosynthesis. Myelin is a multilamellar structure that surrounds many axons in the nervous system and has long been believed to act simply as an insulator. However, it has been shown that myelin has a trophic role, conveying nutrients to the axons and producing ATP through oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, it is tempting to presume that both membranous structures, although distant in the evolution tree, share not only a morphological but also a functional similarity, acting in feeding ATP synthesized by the ATP synthase to the centre of the multilamellar structure. Therefore, both molecular structures may represent a convergent evolution of life on Earth to fulfill fundamentally similar functions.