Search results for "phylogenetic tree"
showing 10 items of 557 documents
Phylogenetic analysis of the isopenicillin-N-synthetase horizontal gene transfer.
1996
A phylogenetic study of the isopenicillin-N-synthetase (IPNS) gene sequence from prokaryotic and lower eukaryotic producers of beta-lactam antibiotics by means of a maximum-likelihood approach has been carried out. After performing an extensive search, rather than invoking a global molecular clock, the results obtained are best explained by a model with three rates of evolution. Grouped in decreasing order, these correspond to A. nidulans and then to the rest of the eukaryotes and prokaryotes, respectively. The estimated branching date between prokaryotic and fungal IPNS sequences (852 +/- 106 MY) strongly supports the hypothesis that the IPNS gene was horizontally transferred from bacteria…
Structural and evolutionary analysis of the copia-like elements in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome.
2001
The analysis of 460 kb of genomic sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome III allowed us to identify two new transposable elements named AtC1 and AtC2. AtC1 shows identical long terminal repeats (LTRs) and all the structural features characteristic of the copia-like active elements. AtC2 is also a full copia-like element, but a putative stop codon in the open reading frame (ORF) would produce a truncated protein. In order to identify the copia-like fraction of the A. thaliana genome, a careful computer-based analysis of the available sequences (which correspond to 92% of the genome) was performed. Approximately 300 nonredundant copia-like sequences homologous to AtC1 and AtC2 were detec…
piRNAclusterDB 2.0: update and expansion of the piRNA cluster database.
2021
Abstract PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and their partnering PIWI proteins defend the animal germline against transposable elements and play a crucial role in fertility. Numerous studies in the past have uncovered many additional functions of the piRNA pathway, including gene regulation, anti-viral defense, and somatic transposon repression. Further, comparative analyses across phylogenetic groups showed that the PIWI/piRNA system evolves rapidly and exhibits great evolutionary plasticity. However, the presence of so-called piRNA clusters as the major source of piRNAs is common to nearly all metazoan species. These genomic piRNA-producing loci are highly divergent across taxa and critically…
bilbo, a non-LTR retrotransposon of Drosophila subobscura: a clue to the evolution of LINE-like elements in Drosophila
1997
We used the repetitive character of transposable elements to isolate a non-LTR retrotransposon in Drosophila subobscura. bilbo, as we have called it, has homology to TRIM and LOA elements. Sequence analysis showed a 5' untranslated region (UTR), an open reading frame (ORF) with no RNA-binding domains, a downstream ORF that had structural homology to that of the I factor, and, finally, a 3' UTR which ended in several 5-nt repeats. The results of our phylogenetic and structural analyses shed light on the evolution of Drosophila non-LTR retrotransposons and support the hypothesis that an ancestor of these elements was structurally complex.
Suitability of chloroplast LSU rDNA and its diverse group I introns for species recognition and phylogenetic analyses of lichen-forming Trebouxia alg…
2009
To date, species identification of lichen photobionts has been performed principally on the basis of microscopic examinations and molecular data from nuclear-encoded genes. In plants, the chloroplast genome has been more readily exploited than the nuclear genome for systematic investigations. At the present time, very little information is available about the chloroplast genome of lichen-forming algae. For this reason, we have sequenced a portion of the gene encoding for the chloroplast large sub-unit rRNA (LSU rDNA) as a new molecular marker. Sequencing of the chloroplast LSU rDNAs revealed the existence of an unusual diversity of group I introns (a total of 31) within 15 analyzed Trebouxi…
A method for determining the position and size of optimal sequence regions for phylogenetic analysis.
1995
The availability of fast and accurate sequencing procedures along with the use of PCR has led to a proliferation of studies of variability at the molecular level in populations. Nevertheless, it is often impractical to examine long genomic stretches and a large number of individuals at the same time. In order to optimize this kind of study, we suggest a heuristic procedure for detection of the shortest region whose informational content can be considered sufficient for significant phylogenetic reconstruction. The method is based on the comparison of the pairwise genetic distances obtained from a set of sequences of reference to those obtained for different windows of variable size and posit…
The evolutionary history of HSA7/16 synteny in vertebrates: a critical interpretation of comparative cytogenetic and genome sequence data
2013
The current work is an in silico study of data from previous publications and genome browsers, on the origin of the human synteny HSA7a/16p. The molecular composition of the chromosomal segments identified as HSA7a/16 and 7b (free or differently associated) is not yet clear. This means that a syntenic association 7/16, which can be detected by an in situ hybridization (FISH) method in different taxa, may not necessarily correspond to those of the same association in different lineages. In silico research, together with comparative cytogenetics, have been applied in order to define the composition of the 7/16 syntenic association. These results allow a confident reconstruction of the synteni…
Molecular Phylogenetic Analyses in Court Trials
2010
Molecular phylogenetics allows reconstructing of the genealogy and evolutionary history of organisms from information on their nucleotide or amino acid sequences. When sequences are derived from very fast evolving organisms, such as ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, changes accumulate in a few days or weeks, thus allowing the reconstruction of very recent evolutionary events in the history of these populations. One such event is the transmission of one of these viruses, for instance human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV), from an infected person to another. This occasionally results in a legal demand seeking for compensation and/or punishment for the transmitter. Hence,…
Deciphering the role of insertion sequences in the evolution of bacterial epidemic pathogens with panISa software
2020
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is now widely used in microbiology to explore genome evolution and the structure of pathogen outbreaks. Bioinformatics pipelines readily detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms or short indels. However, bacterial genomes also evolve through the action of small transposable elements called insertion sequences (ISs), which are difficult to detect due to their short length and multiple repetitions throughout the genome. We designed panISa software for the ab initio detection of IS insertions in the genomes of prokaryotes. PanISa has been released as open source software (GPL3) available from https://github.com/bvalot/panISa. In this study, we assessed the utilit…
Wickerhamomyces sylviae f.a., sp. nov., an ascomycetous yeast species isolated from migratory birds.
2013
In the present work, we investigated the phylogenetic position and phenotypic characteristics of eight yeast isolates collected from migratory birds on the island of Ustica, Italy. A phylogenetic analysis based on the D1/D2 region of the large-subunit rRNA gene showed that all isolates clustered as a single separate lineage within the Wickerhamomyces clade. They exhibited distinct morphological and physiological characteristics and were clearly separated from their closest relatives, Wickerhamomyces lynferdii, Wickerhamomyces anomalus and Wickerhamomyces subpelliculosus, in blastn searches. On the basis of the isolation source, physiological features and molecular strain typing carried out …