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Gene duplication and the evolution of photosynthetic reaction center proteins
Author(s) -
Lockhart Peter J.,
Steel Michael A.,
Larkum Anthony W.D.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(96)00383-3
Subject(s) - gene duplication , anoxygenic photosynthesis , phylogenetic tree , photosynthetic reaction centre , gene , biology , evolutionary biology , genetics , phylogenetics , photosynthesis , biochemistry , cyanobacteria , bacteria
We investigate the evolutionary relationships between photosynthetic reaction center proteins (D1, D2, L and M) and demonstrate that the pattern of nucleotide substitution in these is more complicated than has been assumed in previous phylogenetic analyses. We show that there are serious violations of methodological assumptions in previous published studies. We conclude that there is equal support for hypotheses indicating (i) a single gene duplication of an ancestral reaction center protein followed by diversification and (ii) two independent gene duplications giving rise to proteins in oxygenic and anoxygenic systems.