Multiple evolutionary origins of prochlorophytes, the chlorophyllb-containing prokaryotes
Abstract
PROCHLOROPHYTES are prokaryotes that carry out oxygenic photosynthesis using chlorophylls a and b, but lack phycobili-proteins as light-harvesting pigments1. These characteristics distinguish them from cyanobacteria, which contain phycobiliproteins, but no chlorophyll b. Three prochlorophyte genera have been described: Prochloron1-3,Prochlorothrix4andProchlorococcus5,6. The prochlorophytes share their pigment characteristics with green plant and euglenoid chloroplasts, which has led to a debate on whether these chloroplasts may have arisen from an endosymbiotic prochlorophyte rather than a cyanobacterium2,7. Molecular sequence data, including those presented here based on a fragment of the rpoCl gene encoding a subunit of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, indicate that the known prochlorophyte lineages do not include the direct ancestor of chloroplasts8-11. We also show that the prochlorophytes are a highly diverged polyphyletic group. Thus the use of chlorophyll b as a light-harvesting pigment has developed independently several times in evolution. Similar conclusions have been reached in parallel studies using 16S ribosomal RNA sequences12.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- January 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1038/355265a0
- Bibcode:
- 1992Natur.355..265P