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MBE Advance Access originally published online on December 29, 2004
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(4):810-813; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi075
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Molecular Biology and Evolution vol. 22 no. 4 © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2004; all rights reserved.

Sister Group Relationship of Turtles to the Bird-Crocodilian Clade Revealed by Nuclear DNA–Coded Proteins

Naoyuki Iwabe*, Yuichiro Hara*,1, Yoshinori Kumazawa{dagger}, Kaori Shibamoto*,2, Yumi Saito*,3, Takashi Miyata*,4 and Kazutaka Katoh*,5

* Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; and {dagger} Division of Material Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

E-mail: kkatoh{at}kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp.

Abstract

The phylogenetic position of turtles is a currently controversial issue. Recent molecular studies rejected a traditional view that turtles are basal living reptiles (Hedges, S. B., and L. L. Poling. 1999. A molecular phylogeny. Science 83:998–1001; Kumazawa, Y., and M. Nishida. 1999. Complete mitochondrial DNA sequences of the green turtle and blue-tailed mole skink, statistical evidence for archosaurian affinity of turtles. Mol. Biol. Evol. 16:784–792). Instead, these studies grouped turtles with birds and crocodiles. The relationship among turtles, birds, and crocodiles remained unclear to date. To resolve this issue, we have cloned and sequenced two nuclear genes encoding the catalytic subunit of DNA polymerase {alpha} and glycinamide ribonucleotide synthetase–aminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase–glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase from amniotes and an amphibian. The amino acid sequences of these proteins were subjected to a phylogenetic analysis based on the maximum likelihood method. The resulting tree showed that turtles are the sister group to a monophyletic cluster of archosaurs (birds and crocodiles). All other possible tree topologies were significantly rejected.

Key Words: amniote phylogeny • anapsid • archosaur • lepidosaur • turtle


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