PhyloSort: A Tool for Analyzing Phylogenetic Trees
Author Information
Author(s): Moustafa Ahmed, Debashish Bhattacharya
Primary Institution: University of Iowa
Hypothesis
How can we estimate the cyanobacterial contribution to the nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas?
Conclusion
Cyanobacteria account for 3.5–6% of the protein-coding genes in the nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas.
Supporting Evidence
- PhyloSort identified 897 Chlamydomonas genes of putative cyanobacterial origin.
- 531 of these genes had bootstrap support values ≥ 50%.
- Cyanobacteria contributed approximately 3.5–6% of the protein-coding genes in Chlamydomonas.
Takeaway
Scientists created a tool called PhyloSort to help find genes from cyanobacteria in the DNA of a green alga called Chlamydomonas. They found that a small part of Chlamydomonas's genes came from cyanobacteria.
Methodology
PhyloSort was developed to analyze phylogenetic trees and identify monophyletic relationships, using a set of 15,143 predicted nuclear-encoded proteins from Chlamydomonas.
Limitations
The study may underestimate the actual number of cyanobacterial genes due to the loss of phylogenetic signal over time.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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