title: Divergence of the phytochrome gene family predates angiosperm evolution and suggests that Selaginella and Equisetum arose prior to Psilotum.
abstract: Thirty-two partial phytochrome sequences from algae, mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms (11 of them newly released ones from our laboratory) were analyzed by distance and character-state approaches (PHYLIP, TREECON, PAUP). In addition, 12 full-length sequences were analyzed. Despite low bootstrap values at individual internal nodes, the inferred trees (neighbor-joining, Fitch, maximum parsimony) generally showed similar branching orders consistent with other molecular data. Lower plants formed two distinct groups. One basal group consisted of Selaginella, Equisetum, and mosses; the other consisted of a monophyletic cluster of frond-bearing pteridophytes. Psilotum was a member of the latter group and hence perhaps was not, as sometimes suggested, a close relative of the first vascular plants. The results further suggest that phytochrome gene duplication giving rise to a- and b- and later to c-types may have taken place within seedfern genomes. Distance matrices dated the separation of mono- and dicotyledons back to about 260 million years before the present (Myr B.P.) and the separation of Metasequoia and Picea to a fossil record-compatible value of 230 Myr B.P. The Ephedra sequence clustered with the c- or a-type and Metasequoia and Picea sequences clustered with the b-type lineage. The "paleoherb" Nymphaea branched off from the c-type lineage prior to the divergence of mono- and dicotyledons on the a- and b-type branches. Sequences of Piper (another "paleoherb") created problems in that they branched off from different phytochrome lineages at nodes contradicting distance from the inferred trees' origin.
authors.affiliation: Botanisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Kolukisaoglu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiegmann
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hanelt
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Schneider-Poetsch
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010834:Phytochrome / Q000235:genetics*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D010834:Phytochrome