Disclaimer: this page represents my attempt to synthesize various sources of information about global phylogeny. It is not intended to be taken as a "system" of taxonomic or phylogenetic organization, and it certainly should not be taken as the "true" phylogeny. It is merely what I am currently inclined to believe, a convenient scheme upon which to tack other pieces of information. Please let me know if I am missing anything that you feel ought to be on here, or if you find anything that you disagree with or that you know to be wrong. Thanks!
Life forms on Earth
Eubacteria
(Ochman&Wilson (1987) JMolEvol: major groups diverged ~1.5 BYA, but Gray (1992) points out that this clock would make mitos younger than plastids, so...; Lazcano&Miller (1994): 3.5 BYA; Knoll (1992) Science: Cyanobacteria unequivocally > 2 BYA; branching order is highly dependent on the dataset -- both gene and taxa -- so a more conservative rendering would be an unresolved multichotomy of the taxa in bold)
- Thermotogales
- Thermotoga maritima
- Fervidobacterium islandicum
- Novel Phylum?
- Green non-sulfur bacteria
- Herpetosiphon giganteus
- Chloroflexus aurantiacus
- Deinococcaceae (Chuck Delwiche's tufA data (and what else?) suggest the existence of a Deinococcaceae+Cyanobacteria clade...)
- Thermus thermophilus
- Deinonema
- Deinococcus radiodurans
- Cyanobacteria+Chloroplasts (Sean Turner reports 4-16-98 that on the basis of SSU rRNA he believes there are 12 monophyletic groups of cyanos. I should get these from him; Chuck Delwiche's tufA data (and what else?) suggest the existence of a Deinococcaceae+Cyanobacteria clade)
- Gleobacter: no thylakoids
- Prochlorothrix: chl a +b
- Gleothece: bacciliform
- Anacystis: coccoid
- Spirulina
- Phormidium
- Plectonema
- This MAY be a true clade...but even on the basis of rRNA, I think, it's weak...
- Spirochetes
- Spirochaete aurantia
- Borrelia
- Flexistipes
- Chlamydiales (perhaps + Planctomyces)
- Green sulfur bacteria
- Bacteroides group
- Bacteroides
- Cytophaga
- Taxeobacter
- Flavobacteria
- Fibrobacteria
- Flexibacteria
- Proteobacteria
- alpha+(beta+gamma) (probably robust on basis of SSU rRNA, tufA, ...?)
- alpha+mitochondria
- Zymomonas
- Rhodospirillum
- Rhodobacter
- Agrobacterium/Brucellus/Rhodopseudomonas group
- Caulobacter
- Rickettsia/Ehrlichia/Wohlbachia group (mitochondria probably came from here, based on several gene phylogenies, ultrastructure, and biochemistry. E.g., hsp70 signature sequence: 1998 MBE 15:683)
- beta+gamma (beta arises from within gamma, at least by SSU rRNA)
- gamma
- beta
- Pseudomonas cepacia
- Thiobacillus cuprinus
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Haemophilus influenzae
- Enteric bacteria (Ochman&Wilson (1987) puts the E.coli/Salmonella split at ~130 MYA)
- Escherichia coli
- Salmonella typhimurium
- Shewanella putrefasciens
- delta+epsilon
- delta
- Myxobacteria
- Stigmatella aurantiaca
- Nannocystis exedens
- epsilon
- Wolinella succinogenes
- Campylobacter jejuni
- Helicobacter
- Gram-positive bacteria ("Firmicutes")
- Fusobacteria (probably belong here)
- High G+C ("Actinomycetes")
- Micrococcus
- Mycobacterium
- Streptomyces
- Cornyebacterium
- Lo G+C
- Clostridium
- Bacillus
- Mycoplasma
- Streptococcus
Archaebacteria
- Euryarchaeota
- Thermococcales
- Thermococcus celer
- Pyrococcus woesii
- Methanococcus
- Methanobacterium
- Methanomicrobium
- Halobacterium marismortui (=Haloarcula marismortui)
- Archaeoglobus
- Thermoplasma acidophilum
- Crenarchaeota (Lake's "eocytes")
- Pyrodictium and co.
- Thermoproteus and co.
- Sulfolobus acidocladarius
- Korachaeota (this taxon is only speculative, currently (Sue Barns' 1997 PNAS paper), and could be allied with either of the other Archae groups or even with Euks)
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