A brief history of Saxifragales. — The composition of Saxifragales as revealed in recent analyses is one of the major surprises of molecular phylogenetic studies of angiosperms (e.g., Chase & al., 1993; Morgan & Soltis, 1993; D. Soltis & al., 1997a, 2000; Qiu & al., 1998; Hoot & al., 1999; P. Soltis & al., 1999; Savolainen & al., 2000a, b; reviewed in D. Soltis & al., 2005). The order (APG II, ...

Photosynthesis is a critical biochemical process on our planet providing food for most life. The common ancestor of plants and their algal sisters gained photosynthesis through the engulfment and retention of a cyanobacterial primary endosymbiont that evolved into a photosynthetic organelle, the plastid (Bhattacharya et al., 2004). In photosynthetic eukaryotes, the essential series of reactions...

Vertebrates are part of the phylum Chordata, itself part of a three-phylum group known as the deuterostomes. Despite extensive phylogenetic analysis of the deuterostome animals, several unresolved relationships remain. These include the relationship between the three deuterostome phyla (chordates, echinoderms and hemichordates), and the monophyletic or paraphyletic origin of the cyclostomes (ha...

Scarabaeoid beetles display a distinctive lamellate antenna carrying olfactory sensillae which show various trends of surface enlargement, including the increased number of the terminal lamellate antennomeres. The presence of >3 lamellae ('plurilamellate' antennae) in some groups has been used in the classification of chafers (Melolonthinae) and in particular in the tribe Sericini. However, thi...

Multi-gene phylogenetic analyses were conducted to address the evolution of Clavicipitaceae (Ascomycota). Data are presented here for approximately 5900 base pairs from portions of seven loci: the nuclear ribosomal small and large subunit DNA (nrSSU and nrLSU), beta-tubulin, elongation factor 1alpha (EF-1alpha), the largest and second largest subunits of RNA polymerase II (RPB1 and RPB2), and m...

Phylogeny of Polycentropodidae Ulmer is inferred based on data from immature and adult stages. Larval information is unknown for 61% of the taxa included in this study. To understand the effects of including characters with large sets of missing data, three alternative datasets were analysed using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Five outgroup taxa, including the four families in Psychomyioidea ...