Work

Models with unequal transition rates favor marine origins of Cyanobacteria and photosynthetic eukaryotes

Year: 2017

Type: letter

Abstract: Using a broadly sampled, time-calibrated phylogeny of Cyanobacteria and photosynthetic eukaryotes, Sanchez-Baracaldo et al. (1) report that the most-recent common ancestor (MRCA) of Archaeplastida likely inhabited a low-salinity (freshwater) habitat, providing an advance on a longstanding debate about the ecological context for the origin of plastids (2). The freshwater ancestry for Cyanobacteria and Archaeplastida was based on reconstructions that assumed equal transition rates among marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats (1), which likely oversimplified the 2.5-billion-year history of these groups. We relaxed the assumption of a single transition rate by fitting a model with additional parameters for independent transition rates among marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats. This model provided a … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tnakov{at}uark.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1716692114

Authors: Teofil Nakov, James D. Boyko, Andrew J. Alverson, Jeremy M. Beaulieu

Institution: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Language: English

Topic: Protist diversity and phylogeny

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Life below water

Open Access status: green

Funder: Simons Foundation