A decade of progress in plant molecular phylogenetics.
Over the past decade, botanists have produced several thousand phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data, with particular emphasis on sequencing rbcL, the plastid gene encoding the large subunit of Rubisco (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase). Because phylogenetic trees retrieved from the three plant genomes (plastid, nuclear and mitochondrial) have been highly congruent, the "Angiosperm Phylogeny Group" has used these DNA-based phylogenetic trees to reclassify all families of flowering plants. However, in addition to taxonomy, these major phylogenetic efforts have also helped to define strategies to reconstruct the "tree of life", and have revealed the size of the ancestral plant genome, uncovered potential candidates for the ancestral flower, identified molecular living fossils, and linked the rate of neutral substitutions with species diversity. With an increased interest in DNA sequencing programmes in non-model organisms, the next decade will hopefully see these phylogenetic findings integrated into new genetic syntheses, from genomes to taxa.
Savolainen
Vincent
V
Molecular Systematics Section, Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond TW9 3DS, UK. v.savolainen@kew.org
Chase
Mark W
MW
D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D018087:Plastids / Q000235:genetics; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase / Q000235:genetics
D018744:DNA, Plant; D010940:Plant Proteins; C101625:RbcL protein, plastid; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase