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Cladistic analysis of 5S rRNA and 16S rRNA secondary and primary structure—The evolution of eukaryotes and their relation to archaebacteria

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Summary

The secondary structure of 5S rRNA has been elucidated by a cladistic analysis resulting in minimal models for eukaryotes, eubacteria, and halophilic-methanogenic archaebacteria, as well as for an ur-5S rRNA. This ancestor of all present-day 5S rRNA molecules is compared with an ur-tRNA and can be fitted into a tRNA-like structure allowing tertiary-structure interactions at the equivalent positions. A phylogenetic analysis of eukaryotic 5SrRNA and 16S rRNA sequences confirms particular monophyletic taxa: rhodophytes (red algae), chlorobionts (green algae and plants), metazoans (multicellular animals), euglenozoans (euglenids and trypanosomatids), a group of zygomycetes (excluding Kickxellales), a group of ascomycetes (excluding Protomycetales), two distinct groups of basidiomycetes, and a group consisting of phaeophyceans (brown algae) and oomycetes (water molds). The Euglenozoa show a distinct relation to the Eumycota (true fungi) and Metazoa. An analysis of archaebacterial sequences substantiates the paraphyletic nature of this third urkingdom defining the eubacteria as a sister group of the halophile-methanogens and defining the eukaryotes as a sister group of a particular lineage of the eocytes/sulfur-dependents. The latter fact implies that even the eocytes/sulfur-dependent archaebacteria are paraphyletic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Biochemie, Fachbereich Chemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Thielallee 63, D-1000, Berlin 33 (Dahlem), FRG

    Jörn Wolters & Volker A. Erdmann

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  1. Jörn Wolters
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  2. Volker A. Erdmann
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Dedicated to the memory of Erik Huysmans who died on July 8, 1986, at the age of 29.

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Wolters, J., Erdmann, V.A. Cladistic analysis of 5S rRNA and 16S rRNA secondary and primary structure—The evolution of eukaryotes and their relation to archaebacteria. J Mol Evol 24, 152–166 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02099963

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