MBE Advance Access originally published online on July 13, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(9):2059-2068; doi:10.1093/molbev/msm136
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Research Articles |
Phylogenomic Data Analyses Provide Evidence that Xenarthra and Afrotheria Are Sister Groups
Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Division of Evolutionary Molecular Systematics, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
E-mail: bjorn.hallstrom{at}cob.lu.se.
Accepted for publication June 25, 2007.
The phylogenetic positions of the 4 clades, Euarchontoglires, Laurasiatheria, Afrotheria, and Xenarthra, have been major issues in the recent discussion of basal relationships among placental mammals. However, despite considerable efforts these relationships, crucial to the understanding of eutherian evolution and biogeography, have remained essentially unresolved. Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria are generally joined into a common clade (Boreoeutheria), whereas the position of Afrotheria and Xenarthra relative to Boreoeutheria has been equivocal in spite of the use of comprehensive amounts of nuclear encoded sequences or the application of genome-level characters such as retroposons. The probable reason for this uncertainty is that the divergences took place long time ago and within a narrow temporal window, leaving only short common branches. With the aim of further examining basal eutherian relationships, we have collected conserved protein-coding sequences from 11 placental mammals, a marsupial and a bird, whose nuclear genomes have been largely sequenced. The length of the alignment of homologous sequences representing each individual species is 2,168,859 nt. This number of sites, representing 2840 protein-coding genes, exceeds by a considerable margin that of any previous study. The phylogenetic analysis joined Xenarthra and Afrotheria on a common branch, Atlantogenata. This topology was found to fit the data significantly better than the alternative trees.
Key Words: Atlantogenata • phylogenomics • placental mammals • phylogeny • Xenarthra • Afrotheria
Arndt von Haeseler, Associate Editor
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. C. Opazo, A. M. Sloan, K. L. Campbell, and J. F. Storz Origin and Ascendancy of a Chimeric Fusion Gene: The {beta}/{delta}-Globin Gene of Paenungulate Mammals Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2009; 26(7): 1469 - 1478. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Schneider and G. M. Cannarozzi Support Patterns from Different Outgroups Provide a Strong Phylogenetic Signal Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2009; 26(6): 1259 - 1272. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. J. Wiens Paleontology, Genomics, and Combined-Data Phylogenetics: Can Molecular Data Improve Phylogeny Estimation for Fossil Taxa? Syst Biol, May 19, 2009; (2009) syp012v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. Churakov, J. O. Kriegs, R. Baertsch, A. Zemann, J. Brosius, and J. Schmitz Mosaic retroposon insertion patterns in placental mammals Genome Res., May 1, 2009; 19(5): 868 - 875. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. Nishihara, S. Maruyama, and N. Okada Retroposon analysis and recent geological data suggest near-simultaneous divergence of the three superorders of mammals PNAS, March 31, 2009; 106(13): 5235 - 5240. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. M. Hallstrom and A. Janke Gnathostome Phylogenomics Utilizing Lungfish EST Sequences Mol. Biol. Evol., February 1, 2009; 26(2): 463 - 471. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. C. Opazo, F. G. Hoffmann, and J. F. Storz Differential loss of embryonic globin genes during the radiation of placental mammals PNAS, September 2, 2008; 105(35): 12950 - 12955. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. B. Prasad, M. W. Allard, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, and E. D. Green Confirming the Phylogeny of Mammals by Use of Large Comparative Sequence Data Sets Mol. Biol. Evol., September 1, 2008; 25(9): 1795 - 1808. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. J. Wiens, C. A. Kuczynski, S. A. Smith, D. G. Mulcahy, J. W. Sites Jr., T. M. Townsend, and T. W. Reeder Branch Lengths, Support, and Congruence: Testing the Phylogenomic Approach with 20 Nuclear Loci in Snakes Syst Biol, June 1, 2008; 57(3): 420 - 431. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. S. Springer, R. W. Meredith, E. Eizirik, E. Teeling, and W. J. Murphy Morphology and Placental Mammal Phylogeny Syst Biol, June 1, 2008; 57(3): 499 - 503. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T.-K. Seo Calculating Bootstrap Probabilities of Phylogeny Using Multilocus Sequence Data Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2008; 25(5): 960 - 971. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 B. R. Riddle, M. N. Dawson, E. A. Hadly, D. J. Hafner, M. J. Hickerson, S. J. Mantooth, and A. D. Yoder The role of molecular genetics in sculpting the future of integrative biogeography Progress in Physical Geography, April 1, 2008; 32(2): 173 - 202. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. J. Asher, J. H. Geisler, and M. R. Sanchez-Villagra Morphology, Paleontology, and Placental Mammal Phylogeny Syst Biol, April 1, 2008; 57(2): 311 - 317. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
F. G. Hoffmann, J. C. Opazo, and J. F. Storz Rapid Rates of Lineage-Specific Gene Duplication and Deletion in the {alpha}-Globin Gene Family Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2008; 25(3): 591 - 602. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|