A Time line of the Environmental Genetics of the Haptophytes

Archive ouverte

Liu, Hui | Aris-Brosou, Stephane | Probert, Ian | de Vargas, Colomban

Edité par CCSD ; Oxford University Press (OUP) -

International audience. The use of genomic data and the rise of phylogenomics have radically changed our view of the eukaryotic tree of life at a high taxonomic level by identifying 4-6 ``supergroups.'' Yet, our understanding of the evolution of key innovations within each of these supergroups is limited because of poor species sampling relative to the massive diversity encompassed by each supergroup. Here we apply a multigene approach that incorporates a wide taxonomic diversity to infer the time line of the emergence of strategic evolutionary transitions in the haptophytes, a group of ecologically and biogeochemically significant marine protists that belong to the Chromalveolata supergroup. Four genes (SSU, LSU, tufA, and rbcL) were extensively analyzed under several Bayesian models to assess the robustness of the phylogeny, particularly with respect to 1) data partitioning; 2) the origin of the genes (host vs. endosymbiont); 3) across-site rate variation; and 4) across-lineage rate variation. We show with a relaxed clock analysis that the origin of haptophytes dates back to 824 million years ago (Ma) (95% highest probability density 1,031-637 Ma). Our dating results show that the ability to calcify evolved earlier than previously thought, between 329 and 291 Ma, in the Carboniferous period and that the transition from mixotrophy to autotrophy occurred during the same time period. Although these two transitions precede a habitat change of major diversities from coastal/neritic waters to the pelagic realm (291-243 Ma, around the Permian/Triassic boundary event), the emergence of calcification, full autotrophy, and oceanic lifestyle seem mutually independent.

Consulter en ligne

Suggestions

Du même auteur

Morphospecies versus phylospecies concepts for evaluating phytoplankton diversity: the case of the Coccolithophores

Archive ouverte | Young, Jeremy R. | CCSD

International audience. Genetic approaches to exploring in situ marine phytoplankton assemblages have revealed previously unsuspected diversity at different taxonomic levels. However, the phylogenetic species concep...

Extreme diversity in noncalcifying haptophytes explains a major pigment paradox in open oceans

Archive ouverte | Liu, Hui | CCSD

International audience. The current paradigm holds that cyanobacteria, which evolved oxygenic photosynthesis more than 2 billion years ago, are still the major light harvesters driving primary productivity in open o...

In situ survey of life cycle phases of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi (Haptophyta)

Archive ouverte | Frada, Miguel J. | CCSD

International audience. The cosmopolitan coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi is characterized by a strongly differentiated haplodiplontic life cycle consisting of a diploid phase, generally bearing coccoliths (calcifi...

Chargement des enrichissements...