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The evolutionary relationships among known life forms

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Summary

Sequences of small subunit (SSU) and large subunit (LSU) ribosomal RNA genes from archaebacteria, eubacteria, and the nucleus, chloroplasts, and mitochondria of eukaryotes have been compared in order to identify the most conservative positions. Aligned sets of these positions for both SSU and LSU rRNA have been used to generate tree diagrams relating the source organisms/organelles. Branching patterns were evaluated using the statistical bootstrapping technique. The resulting SSU and LSU trees are remarkably congruent and show a high degree of similarity with those based on alternative data sets and/or generated by different techniques. In addition to providing insights into the evolution of prokaryotic and eukaryotic (nuclear) lineages, the analysis reported here provides, for the first time, an extensive phylogeny of the mitochondrial lineage.

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  1. Département de biochimie, Université de Montréal, H3C 3J7, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Robert Cedergren

  2. Centre de recherches mathématiques, Université de Montréal, H3C 3J7, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Yvon Abel & David Sankoff

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Dalhousie University, B3H 4H7, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Michael W. Gray

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  1. Robert Cedergren
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Cedergren, R., Gray, M.W., Abel, Y. et al. The evolutionary relationships among known life forms. J Mol Evol 28, 98–112 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02143501

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