Mitochondrial DNA mutations are well recognized as an important cause of disease, with over two hundred variants in the protein encoding and mt-tRNA genes associated with human disorders. In contrast, the two genes encoding the mitochondrial rRNAs (mt-rRNAs) have been studied in far less detail. This is because establishing the pathogenicity of mt-rRNA mutations is a major diagnostic challenge....

Group I introns were discovered inserted at the same position in the nuclear small-subunit ribosomal DNA (nuc-ssu-rDNA) in several species of homobasidiomycetes (mushroom-forming fungi). Based on conserved intron sequences, a pair of intron-specific primers was designed for PCR amplification and sequencing of intron-containing rDNA repeats. Using the intron-specific primers together with flanki...

In the last few years, environmental sequence surveys have identified several putative novel lineages within the eukaryotes. This interpretation is however limited by the absence of taxon sampling for several well known and abundant eukaryotes (Cavalier-Smith 2004; Simpson and Roger 2004). It is therefore important to complement classical morphological studies with molecular sequencing, as well...

An insertion of one or two amino acids at the monomer-monomer junctions of polyubiquitin is a distinct and highly conserved molecular character that is shared by two very diverse clades of microeukaryotes, the Cercozoa and the Foraminifera. It has been suggested that an insertion consisting of one amino acid, like that found in foraminiferans and some cercozoans, represents an ancestral state, ...

In the entire fungal kingdom, only DNA substitution rates in the SSU rRNA gene (Berbee and Taylor 1993, 2001) and amino acid substitution rates (Heckman et al. 2001) have been estimated and used to date fungal divergences. However, these molecules are not sufficiently variable to date events at or below the genus level. DNA sequences of protein-coding genes and the internal transcribed spacer (...

In contrast to the typical peridinioid dinoflagellates, the podolampadaceans are characterised by the absence of both a cingulum and a depressed sulcus. Until now, gene sequences for typical core podolampadaceans were not available. Despite this, two genera that appeared related in small subunit rRNA gene (SSU rDNA) trees, the sand-dwelling Roscoffia and Lessardia, which was previously consider...

Protists have traditionally been identified by cultivation and classified taxonomically based on their cellular morphologies and behavior. In the past decade, however, many novel protist taxa have been identified using cultivation independent ssu rRNA sequence surveys. New rRNA "phylotypes" from uncultivated eukaryotes have no connection to the wealth of prior morphological descriptions of prot...

Ganoderma has been considered a very difficult genus among the polypores to classify and is currently in a state of taxonomic chaos. In a study of Ganoderma collections including numerous type specimens, we found that six species namely G. cupreum, G. densizonatum, G. limushanense, G. mastoporum, G. orbiforme, G. subtornatum, and records of G. fornicatum from Mainland China and Taiwan are very ...

Noc1p, Noc3p and Noc4p are eukaryotic proteins which play essential roles in yeast ribosome biogenesis and contain a homologous stretch of about 45 aminoacids (Noc-domain) of unknown function. Yeast Noc4p is a component of the small ribosomal subunit (SSU) processome, can be isolated as a stable Noc4p-Nop14p SSU-processome submodule from yeast cells, and is required for nuclear steps of small r...

The Nassophorea and Prostomatea are two of the key classes in understanding the morphological diversification and higher classification of the phylum Ciliophora. However, their phylogenetic relationships with other ciliate groups within the subphylum Intramacronucleata remain elusive. In this study, we investigated the small and large subunit (SSU and LSU) rRNA gene-based phylogeny of these gro...