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Large-subunit rRNA sequence of the chytridiomyceteBlastocladiella emersonii, and implications for the evolution of zoosporic fungi

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Abstract

The 5.8S and 28S ribosomal RNA sequences of the chytridiomyceteBlastocladiella emersonii were determined. These data were combined with 18S rRNA sequences in order to carry out a phylogenetic analysis based on distance matrix, parsimony, and maximum likelihood methods. The new data confirmed that chytridiomycetes are true fungi and not protists, as was already suggested on the basis of biochemical, ultrastructural, and 18S rRNA data. Within the fungal clade,B. emersonii formed the first line of divergence. The position of the fungi within the eukaryotic “crown” taxa was also reassessed, and the alveolate-stramenopile cluster appeared as their sister group. The stramenopiles also comprise a number of zoosporic fungi, which resemble chytridiomycetes in so many respects, e.g., production of motile spores, thallus morphology, and absorptive nutrition, that they have been classified together with them in the past. This suggests that the possible common ancestor of the fungi, stramenopiles, and alveolates may have been a zoosporic fungus, which would mean that zoosporic fungi are paraphyletic instead of polyphyletic as previously suggested.

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Abbreviations

SSU rRNA:

small-subunit rRNA, viz. 18S rRNA

LSU rRNA:

large-subunit rRNA, viz. 5.8S and 28S rRNA

PCR:

polymerase chain reaction

MUCL:

Mycothéque de l'Université Catholique de Louvain

ATCC:

American Type Culture Collection

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  1. Departement Biochemie, Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA), Universiteitsple in 1, B 2610, Antwerpen, Belgium

    Gert Van der Auwera & Rupert De Wachter

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  1. Gert Van der Auwera
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  2. Rupert De Wachter
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Correspondence to: R. De Wachter

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Van der Auwera, G., De Wachter, R. Large-subunit rRNA sequence of the chytridiomyceteBlastocladiella emersonii, and implications for the evolution of zoosporic fungi. J Mol Evol 43, 476–483 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02337520

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02337520

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