Using genomic data to unravel the root of the placental mammal phylogeny.

ABSTRACT: The phylogeny of placental mammals is a critical framework for choosing future genome sequencing targets and for resolving the ancestral mammalian genome at the nucleotide level. Despite considerable recent progress defining superordinal relationships, several branches remain poorly resolved, including the root of the placental tree. Here we analyzed the genome sequence assemblies of human, armadillo, elephant, and opossum to identify informative coding indels that would serve as rare genomic changes to infer early events in placental mammal phylogeny. We also expanded our species sampling by including sequence data from >30 ongoing genome projects, followed by PCR and sequencing validation of each indel in additional taxa. Our data provide support for a sister-group relationship between A

SUBMITTER: Murphy WJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1832088 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature