Toward Automatic Reconstruction of a Highly Resolved Tree of Life
Abstract
We have developed an automatable procedure for reconstructing the tree of life with branch lengths comparable across all three domains. The tree has its basis in a concatenation of 31 orthologs occurring in 191 species with sequenced genomes. It revealed interdomain discrepancies in taxonomic classification. Systematic detection and subsequent exclusion of products of horizontal gene transfer increased phylogenetic resolution, allowing us to confirm accepted relationships and resolve disputed and preliminary classifications. For example, we place the phylum Acidobacteria as a sister group of δ-Proteobacteria, support a Gram-positive origin of Bacteria, and suggest a thermophilic last universal common ancestor.
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Supplementary Material
File (ciccarelli.som.pdf)
Note
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
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We thank S. Hooper for help in designing trees and are grateful to members of the Bork group as well as T. Gibson, M. Gouy, M. Huynen, A. Budd, and M. Wolf for stimulating discussions. This work was supported in part by Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (Nationales Genomforschungsnetz grant 01GR0454 to P.B.) and by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 311 • Issue 5765 • 3 March 2006
Pages: 1283 - 1287
History
Received: 28 November 2005
Accepted: 26 January 2006
Copyright
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
