A genomic survey shows that the haloarchaeal type tyrosyl tRNA synthetase is not a synapomorphy of opisthokonts.
The haloarchaeal-type tyrosyl tRNA synthetase (tyrRS) have previously been proposed to be a molecular synapomorphy of the opisthokonts. To re-evaluate this we have performed a taxon-wide genomic survey of tyrRS in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Our phylogenetic trees group eukaryotes with archaea, with all opisthokonts sharing the haloarchaeal-type tyrRS. However, this type of tyrRS is not exclusive to opisthokonts, since it also encoded by two amoebozoans. Whether this is a consequence of lateral gene transfer or lineage sorting remains unsolved, but in any case haloarchaeal-type tyrRS is not a synapomorphy of opisthokonts. This demonstrates that molecular markers should be re-evaluated once a better taxon sampling becomes available.
Departament de Genètica & Institut de Recerca en Biodiversitat (Irbio), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
John D L
JD
Shadwick
Iñaki
I
Ruiz-Trillo
D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics; D014448:Tyrosine-tRNA Ligase / Q000235:genetics*
D014448:Tyrosine-tRNA Ligase