EXPLOSIVE RADIATION OF A BACTERIAL SPECIES GROUP

Explosive radiation of a bacterial species group.

The current diversity of life on earth is the product of macroevolutionary processes that have shaped the dynamics of diversification. Although the tempo of diversification has been studied extensively in macroorganisms, much less is known about the rates of diversification in the exceedingly diverse and species-rich microbiota. Decreases in diversification rates over time, a signature of explo...

Explosive radiation of Cape Verde Conus, a marine species flock.

Nearly 50 species of the marine gastropod genus Conus are restricted to the Cape Verde archipelago. This unusual concentration of endemics within a single set of oceanic islands is extremely uncharacteristic of marine taxa. Here we used phylogenetic analyses of 90 Conus species, including 30 endemics from Cape Verde, to reveal the relationships and origins of the endemic Cape Verde Conus. Resul...

Radiation of the Drosophila nannoptera species group in Mexico.

The Drosophila nannoptera species group, a taxon of Mexican cactophilic flies, is an excellent model system to study the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on speciation, the genetic causes of ecological specialization and the evolution of unusual reproductive characters. However, the phylogenetic relationships in the nannoptera species group and its position within the virilis-repleta phy...

Explosive invasion of plant mitochondria by a group I intron.

Group I introns are mobile, self-splicing genetic elements found principally in organellar genomes and nuclear rRNA genes. The only group I intron known from mitochondrial genomes of vascular plants is located in the cox1 gene of Peperomia, where it is thought to have been recently acquired by lateral transfer from a fungal donor. Southern-blot surveys of 335 diverse genera of land plants now s...

Comparative Study of L-asparaginase Activity in Different Bacterial Species