Multiple evolutionary origins of prochlorophytes, the chlorophyllb-containing prokaryotes (original) (raw)
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- Published: 16 January 1992
Nature volume 355, pages 265–267 (1992)Cite this article
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Abstract
PROCHLOROPHYTES are prokaryotes that carry out oxygenic photosynthesis using chlorophylls a and b, but lack phycobili-proteins as light-harvesting pigments1. These characteristics distinguish them from cyanobacteria, which contain phycobiliproteins, but no chlorophyll b. Three prochlorophyte genera have been described: _Prochloron_1–3,_Prochlorothrix_4and_Prochlorococcus_5,6. The prochlorophytes share their pigment characteristics with green plant and euglenoid chloroplasts, which has led to a debate on whether these chloroplasts may have arisen from an endosymbiotic prochlorophyte rather than a cyanobacterium2,7. Molecular sequence data, including those presented here based on a fragment of the rpoCl gene encoding a subunit of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, indicate that the known prochlorophyte lineages do not include the direct ancestor of chloroplasts8–11. We also show that the prochlorophytes are a highly diverged polyphyletic group. Thus the use of chlorophyll b as a light-harvesting pigment has developed independently several times in evolution. Similar conclusions have been reached in parallel studies using 16S ribosomal RNA sequences12.
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- Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, 920 E. 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
B. Palenik & R. Haselkorn
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- B. Palenik
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Palenik, B., Haselkorn, R. Multiple evolutionary origins of prochlorophytes, the chlorophyll_b_-containing prokaryotes.Nature 355, 265–267 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/355265a0
- Received: 15 August 1991
- Accepted: 14 October 1991
- Issue Date: 16 January 1992
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/355265a0
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