Detection of Horizontal Gene Transfers from Phylogenetic Comparisons

Bacterial phylogenies have become one of the most important challenges for microbial ecology. This field started in the mid-1970s with the aim of using the sequence of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (16S) tool to infer bacterial phylogenies. Phylogenetic hypotheses based on other sequences usually give conflicting topologies that reveal different evolutionary histories, which in some cases may be the result of horizontal gene transfer events. Currently, one of the major goals of molecular biology is to understand the role that horizontal gene transfer plays in species adaptation and evolution. In this work, we compared the phylogenetic tree based on 16S with the tree based on dszC, a gene involved in the cleavage of carbon-sulfur bonds. Bacteria of several genera perform this survival task when living in environments lacking free mineral sulfur. The biochemical pathway of the desulphurization process was extensively studied due to its economic importance, since this step is expensive and indispensable in fuel production. Our results clearly show that horizontal gene transfer events could be detected using common phylogenetic methods with gene sequences obtained from public sequence databases

Genes mitocondriais e hipoteses filogeneticas no genero tomoplagia (Diptera: Tephritidae) e no grupo tripunctata (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Orientador: Vera Nisaka SolferiniTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de BiologiaDoutorad

Caracterização da variabilidade genetica da mosca do berne Dermatobia hominis (Diptera : oestridae) atraves da tecnica de RAPD-PCR

Orientador: Ana Maria L. de Azeredo EspinDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de BiologiaMestrad

Habitus of <i>Monocerophora spinosa</i> (Karny).

<p>A–C Holotype male (NMW), (A) lateral view, (B) dorsal view, (C) frontal view. D–F Female (CELC) from Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, (D) lateral view, (E) dorsal view, (F) frontal view. Scale bars for dorsal and lateral views (horizontal bar) and frontal views (vertical bar) = 0.5 mm.</p

Habitus of <i>Cerberodon portokalipes</i> sp. nov.

<p>A–C Holotype male, (A) lateral view, (B) dorsal view, (C) frontal view. D–F Allotype female, (D) lateral view, (E) dorsal view, (F) frontal view. Scale bars for dorsal and lateral views (horizontal bar) and frontal views (vertical bar) = 0.5 mm.</p

Habitus of <i>Listroscelis angustifrons</i> (Piza) comb. nov.

<p>A–C Male (NMW) from unknown locality in the state of Espírito Santo, (A) lateral view, (B) frontal view. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.</p

Habitus of <i>Listroscelis fusca</i> sp. nov.

<p>A–C Holotype male, (A) lateral view, (B) dorsal view, (C) frontal view. D–F Allotype female, (D) lateral view, (E) dorsal view, (F) frontal view. Scale bars for dorsal and lateral views (horizontal bar) and frontal views (vertical bar) = 0.5 mm.</p

Habitus of <i>Megatympanon speculatum</i> Piza.

<p>A–C Male (MNRJ) from Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, (A) lateral view, (B) dorsal view, (C) frontal view. D–F Female (MNRJ) from Itaguaí, in the state of Rio de janeiro, (D) lateral view, (E) dorsal view, (F) frontal view. Scale bars for dorsal and lateral views (horizontal bar) and frontal views (vertical bar) = 0.5 mm.</p

Listroscelidinae Bayesian phylogenetic inferences based on COI and 18S sequences.

<p>A) Bayesian consensus tree of 1290 aligned sites of 48 mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0103758#pone-0103758-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a>). Bold numbers on the left side of each species name correspond to the collection site of each specimen (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0103758#pone-0103758-g001" target="_blank">Fig. 1</a>). Outgroups and GenBank accession numbers (following classification in Eades et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0103758#pone.0103758-Eades1" target="_blank">[14]</a>): EU676747 = <i>Hemiandrus</i> sp. Ander (Stenopelmatoidea: Anostostomatidae); EF583824 = <i>Ruspolia dubia</i> (Redtenbacher) (Tettigonioidea: Conocephalinae: Copiphorini); NC016696 = <i>Conocephalus maculatus</i> (Le Guillou) (Tettigonioidea: Conocephalinae: Conocephalini). B) Simplified Bayesian consensus tree of 1615 aligned sites of 48 18S nuclear sequences. All <i>Listroscelis</i> and <i>Monocerophora</i> sequences were identical and were represented by few OTUs in the simplified tree (see the sequences numbers included in the complete tree in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0103758#pone-0103758-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a>). Outgroups and GenBank accession numbers (following classification in Eades et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0103758#pone.0103758-Eades1" target="_blank">[14]</a>): EU676714 = <i>Hemiandrus bilobatus</i> Ander (Stenopelmatoidea: Anostostomatidae); JF792563 = <i>Ruspolia dubia</i> (Redtenbacher) (Tettigonioidea: Conocephalinae: Copiphorini); JF792565 = <i>Conocephalus maculatus</i> (Le Guillou) (Tettigonioidea: Conocephalinae: Conocephalini). In A and B, besides each ancestral node is a fraction number, representing its posterior probability; values >0.95 were represented by an asterisk. Listroscelidini and Hamayulini were represented in red and blue, respectively.</p