THE LIMITS OF AMINO ACID SEQUENCE DATA IN ANGIOSPERM PHYLOGENETIC RECONSTRUCTION

TLDR

Amino‑acid sequence data for several key proteins are available for many angiosperm families, yet the data are insufficiently comprehensive to resolve phylogenetic relationships among them. The study seeks more informative positions by sequencing longer protein regions or additional proteins from the same taxa. Cladistic analyses revealed extensive homoplasy with many parallelisms and reversals, yielding poorly supported or absent monophyletic families, and minor data changes produced markedly different topologies.

Abstract

Amino acid sequence data are available for ribulose biphosphate carboxylase, plastocyanin, cytochrome c, and ferredoxin for a number of angiosperm families. Cladistic analysis of the data, including evaluation of all equally or almost equally parsimonious cladograms, shows that much homoplasy (parallelisms and reversals) is present and that few or no well supported monophyletic groups of families can be demonstrated. In one analysis of nine angiosperm families and 40 variable amino acid positions from three proteins, the most parsimonious cladograms were 151 steps long and contained 63 parallelisms and reversals (consistency index = 0.583). In another analysis of six families and 53 variable amino acid positions from four proteins, the most parsimonious cladogram was 161 steps long and contained 50 parallelisms and reversals (consistency index = 0.689). Single changes in both data matrices could yield most parsimonious cladograms with quite different topologies and without common monophyletic groups. Presently, amino acid sequence data are not comprehensive enough for phylogenetic reconstruction among angiosperms. More informative positions are needed, either from sequencing longer parts of the proteins or from sequencing more proteins from the same taxa.