Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Robert HirtORCiD, Emeritus Professor T. Martin Embley FMedSci FRSORCiD
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
We have determined complete gene sequences encoding the largest subunit of the RNA polymerase II (RBP1) from two Microsporidia, Vairimorpha necatrix and Nosema locustae. Phylogenetic analyses of these and other RPB1 sequences strongly support the notion that Microsporidia are not early-diverging eukaryotes but instead are specifically related to Fungi. Our reexamination of elongation factors EF-1alpha and EF-2 sequence data that had previously been taken as support for an early (Archezoan) divergence of these amitochondriate protists show such support to be weak and likely caused by artifacts in phylogenetic analyses. These EF data sets are, in fact, not inconsistent with a Microsporidia + Fungi relationship. In addition, we show that none of these proteins strongly support a deep divergence of Parabasalia and Metamonada, the other amitochondriate protist groups currently thought to compose early branches. Thus, the phylogenetic placement among eukaryotes for these protist taxa is in need of further critical examination.
Author(s): Embley TM; Hirt RP; Logsdon Jr JM; Healy B; Dorey MW; Doolittle WF
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year: 1999
Volume: 96
Issue: 2
Pages: 580-585
Print publication date: 19/01/1999
ISSN (print): 0027-8424
ISSN (electronic): 1091-6490
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.96.2.580
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.2.580
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric