Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on December 16, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(3):723-731; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl200
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
24/3/723    most recent
msl200v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, N.
Right arrow Articles by Melkonian, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, N.
Right arrow Articles by Melkonian, M.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Articles

Phylogenetic Analyses of Nuclear, Mitochondrial, and Plastid Multigene Data Sets Support the Placement of Mesostigma in the Streptophyta

Naiara Rodríguez-Ezpeleta*,1, Hervé Philippe*,1, Henner Brinkmann*, Burkhard Becker{dagger} and Michael Melkonian{dagger}

* Départment de Biochimie, Centre Robert Cedergren, Canadian Institute of Advanced Research, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
{dagger} Botanisches Institut, Lehrstuhl I, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany

E-mail: herve.philippe{at}umontreal.ca; michael.melkonian{at}uni-koeln.de.

Accepted for publication December 12, 2006.

All extant green plants belong to 1 of 2 major lineages, commonly known as the Chlorophyta (most of the green algae) and the Streptophyta (land plants and their closest green algal relatives). The scaly green flagellate Mesostigma viride has an important place in the debate on the origin of green plants. However, there have been conflicting results from molecular systematics as to whether Mesostigma diverges before the Chlorophyta/Streptophyta split or is an early diverging flagellate member of the Streptophyta. Previous studies employed either a limited taxon sampling (plastid and mitochondrial genomes) or a small number of phylogenetically informative sites (single nuclear genes). Here, we use large data sets from the nuclear (125 proteins; 29,319 positions), mitochondrial (33 proteins; 6,622 positions), and plastid (50 proteins; 10,137 positions) genomes with an expanded taxon sampling (21, 13, and 28 species, respectively) to reevaluate the phylogenetic position of Mesostigma. Our study supports the placement of Mesostigma in the Streptophyta (as an early diverging lineage) and provides evidence that systematic biases have played a role in generating some of the previous conflicting results. Importantly, we demonstrate that using an increased taxon sampling as well as more realistic models of evolution allows increasing congruence among the nuclear, mitochondrial, and plastid data sets.

Key Words: Mesostigma • Chlorokybus • phylogenomics • taxon sampling • systematic error • heterotachy


1 These authors contributed equally to this work.

Peter Lockhart, Associate Editor


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Mol Biol EvolHome page
Y. Zhou, H. Brinkmann, N. Rodrigue, N. Lartillot, and H. Philippe
A Dirichlet Process Covarion Mixture Model and Its Assessments Using Posterior Predictive Discrepancy Tests
Mol. Biol. Evol., February 1, 2010; 27(2): 371 - 384.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Plant Physiol.Home page
B. Pils and A. Heyl
Unraveling the Evolution of Cytokinin Signaling
Plant Physiology, October 1, 2009; 151(2): 782 - 791.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Mol Biol EvolHome page
M. Turmel, M.-C. Gagnon, C. J. O'Kelly, C. Otis, and C. Lemieux
The Chloroplast Genomes of the Green Algae Pyramimonas, Monomastix, and Pycnococcus Shed New light on the Evolutionary History of Prasinophytes and the Origin of the Secondary Chloroplasts of Euglenids
Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2009; 26(3): 631 - 648.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Mol Biol EvolHome page
N. Gruenheit, P. J. Lockhart, M. Steel, and W. Martin
Difficulties in Testing for Covarion-Like Properties of Sequences under the Confounding Influence of Changing Proportions of Variable Sites
Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2008; 25(7): 1512 - 1520.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Mol Biol EvolHome page
B. Kolaczkowski and J. W. Thornton
A Mixed Branch Length Model of Heterotachy Improves Phylogenetic Accuracy
Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2008; 25(6): 1054 - 1066.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Mol Biol EvolHome page
H. Khan, N. Parks, C. Kozera, B. A. Curtis, B. J. Parsons, S. Bowman, and J. M. Archibald
Plastid Genome Sequence of the Cryptophyte Alga Rhodomonas salina CCMP1319: Lateral Transfer of Putative DNA Replication Machinery and a Test of Chromist Plastid Phylogeny
Mol. Biol. Evol., August 1, 2007; 24(8): 1832 - 1842.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]



Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.