Molecular phylogeny of Dictyostelium discoideum by protein sequence comparison.
Comparison of the amino acid sequences of eight proteins from the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum to those of their homologs in bacteria, yeast, and other eukaryotes indicates that Dictyostelium diverged from the line leading to mammals at about the same time as the plant/animal divergence. Yeast appear to have diverged considerably earlier. It is argued that previous analyses indicating that D. discoideum diverged before yeast were misleading because of the nature of the small ribosomal subunit rRNA sequences used in these studies. We suggest that amino acid sequences may be more reliable than untranslated nucleic acid sequences for evolutionary comparisons, especially among organisms with significant skewing of their A+T content.
Loomis
W F
WF
Center for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.
Smith
D W
DW
D000199:Actins / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D002147:Calmodulin / Q000235:genetics; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015723:Gene Library; D009218:Myosins / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D018631:ras Proteins
D000199:Actins; D002147:Calmodulin; D005656:Fungal Proteins; C489016:ras protein, Dictyostelium; D009218:Myosins; D018631:ras Proteins