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Phylogeny of Opisthokonta and the evolution of multicellularity and complexity in Fungi and Metazoa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2004

Mónica Medina ,
Allen G. Collins ,
John W. Taylor ,
James W. Valentine ,
Jere H. Lipps ,
Linda Amaral-Zettler  and
Mitchell L. Sogin
Mónica Medina
Affiliation:
Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA DOE Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA Present address: Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA. e-mail: m_medina@lbl.gov
Allen G. Collins
Affiliation:
ITZ, Ecology & Evolution, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Bünteweg 17d, 30559 Hannover, Germany Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
John W. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
James W. Valentine
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Jere H. Lipps
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Linda Amaral-Zettler
Affiliation:
Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
Mitchell L. Sogin
Affiliation:
Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
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Abstract

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While early eukaryotic life must have been unicellular, multicellular lifeforms evolved multiple times from protistan ancestors in diverse eukaryotic lineages. The origins of multicellularity are of special interest because they require evolutionary transitions towards increased levels of complexity. We have generated new sequence data from the nuclear large subunit ribosomal DNA gene (LSU rDNA) and the SSU rDNA gene of several unicellular opisthokont protists – a nucleariid amoeba (Nuclearia simplex) and four choanoflagellates (Codosiga gracilis, Choanoeca perplexa, Proterospongia choanojuncta and Stephanoeca diplocostata) to provide the basis for re-examining relationships among several unicellular lineages and their multicellular relatives (animals and fungi). Our data indicate that: (1) choanoflagellates are a monophyletic rather than a paraphyletic assemblage that independently gave rise to animals and fungi as suggested by some authors and (2) the nucleariid filose amoebae are the likely sister group to Fungi. We also review published information regarding the origin of multicellularity in the opisthokonts.

Keywords

ChoanoflagellataFungiMesomycetozoeaMetazoamulticellularityNucleariaOpisthokonta
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , July 2003 , pp. 203 - 211
Copyright
2003 Cambridge University Press