title: Late Mitochondrial Origin Is an Artifact.
abstract: The origin of mitochondria was a crucial event in eukaryote evolution. A recent report claimed to provide evidence, based on branch length variation in phylogenetic trees, that the mitochondrion came late in eukaryotic evolution. Here, we reinvestigate their claim with a reanalysis of the published data. We show that the analyses underpinning a late mitochondrial origin suffer from multiple fatal flaws founded in inappropriate statistical methods and analyses, in addition to erroneous interpretations.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: William F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Mayo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roettger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Sriram G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Group, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Shijulal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nelson-Sathi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Giddy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Landan
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D013559:Symbiosis
keywords: endosymbiosis; major evolutionary transitions; origin of mitochondria