Accurate and efficient reconstruction of deep phylogenies from structured RNAs

Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes in Diplura (hexapoda, arthropoda): taxon sampling is crucial for phylogenetic inferences

Two-pronged bristletails (Diplura) are traditionally classified into three major superfamilies: Campodeoidea, Projapygoidea, and Japygoidea. The interrelationships of these three superfamilies and the monophyly of Diplura have been much debated. Few previous studies included Projapygoidea in their phylogenetic considerations, and its position within Diplura still is a puzzle from both morphological and molecular points of view. Until now, no mitochondrial genome has been sequenced for any projapygoid species. To fill in this gap, we determined and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of Octostigma sinensis (Octostigmatidae, Projapygoidea), and of three more dipluran species, one each from the Campodeidae, Parajapygidae, and Japygidae. All four newly sequenced dipluran mtDNAs encode the same set of genes in the same gene order as shared by most crustaceans and hexapods. Secondary structure truncations have occurred in trnR, trnC, trnS1, and trnS2, and the reduction of transfer RNA D-arms was found to be taxonomically correlated, with Campodeoidea having experienced the most reduction. Partitioned phylogenetic analyses, based on both amino acids and nucleotides of the protein-coding genes plus the ribosomal RNA genes, retrieve significant support for a monophyletic Diplura within Pancrustacea, with Projapygoidea more closely related to Campodeoidea than to Japygoidea. Another key finding is that monophyly of Diplura cannot be recovered unless Projapygoidea is included in the phylogenetic analyses; this explains the dipluran polyphyly found by past mitogenomic studies. Including Projapygoidea increased the sampling density within Diplura and probably helped by breaking up a long-branch-attraction artifact. This finding provides an example of how proper sampling is significant for phylogenetic inference.

Disparate molecular evolution of two types of repetitive DNAs in the genome of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans

Wide arrays of repetitive DNA sequences form an important part of eukaryotic genomes. These repeats appear to evolve as coherent families, where repeats within a family are more similar to each other than to other orthologous representatives in related species. The continuous homogenization of repeats, through selective and non-selective processes, is termed concerted evolution. Ascertaining the level of variation between repeats is crucial to determining which evolutionary model best explains the homogenization observed for these sequences. Here, for the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans, we present the analysis of intragenomic diversity for two repetitive DNA sequences (a satellite DNA (satDNA) and the 45S rDNA) resulting from the independent microdissection of several chromosomes. Our results show different homogenization patterns for these two kinds of paralogous DNA sequences, with a high between-chromosome structure for rDNA but no structure at all for the satDNA. This difference is puzzling, considering the adjacent localization of the two repetitive DNAs on paracentromeric regions in most chromosomes. The disparate homogenization patterns detected for these two repetitive DNA sequences suggest that several processes participate in the concerted evolution in E. plorans, and that these mechanisms might not work as genome-wide processes but rather as sequence-specific ones.

The continuing debate on deep molluscan phylogeny: evidence for Serialia (Mollusca, Monoplacophora + Polyplacophora)

Molluscs are a diverse animal phylum with a formidable fossil record. Although there is little doubt about the monophyly of the eight extant classes, relationships between these groups are controversial. We analysed a comprehensive multilocus molecular data set for molluscs, the first to include multiple species from all classes, including five monoplacophorans in both extant families. Our analyses of five markers resolve two major clades: the first includes gastropods and bivalves sister to Serialia (monoplacophorans and chitons), and the second comprises scaphopods sister to aplacophorans and cephalopods. Traditional groupings such as Testaria, Aculifera, and Conchifera are rejected by our data with significant Approximately Unbiased (AU) test values. A new molecular clock indicates that molluscs had a terminal Precambrian origin with rapid divergence of all eight extant classes in the Cambrian. The recovery of Serialia as a derived, Late Cambrian clade is potentially in line with the stratigraphic chronology of morphologically heterogeneous early mollusc fossils. Serialia is in conflict with traditional molluscan classifications and recent phylogenomic data. Yet our hypothesis, as others from molecular data, implies frequent molluscan shell and body transformations by heterochronic shifts in development and multiple convergent adaptations, leading to the variable shells and body plans in extant lineages.

ANRIL/CDKN2B-AS shows two-stage clade-specific evolution and becomes conserved after transposon insertions in simians

BACKGROUND

Many long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes identified in mammals have multiple exons and functional domains, allowing them to bind to polycomb proteins, DNA methyltransferases, and specific DNA sequences to regulate genome methylation. Little is known about the origin and evolution of lncRNAs. ANRIL/CDKN2B-AS consists of 19 exons on human chromosome 9p21 and regulates the expression of three cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CDKN2A/ARF/CDKN2B).

RESULTS

ANRIL/CDKN2B-AS originated in placental mammals, obtained additional exons during mammalian evolution but gradually lost them during rodent evolution, and reached 19 exons only in simians. ANRIL lacks splicing signals in mammals. In simians, multiple transposons were inserted and transformed into exons of the ANRIL gene, after which ANRIL became highly conserved. A further survey reveals that multiple transposons exist in many lncRNAs.

CONCLUSIONS

ANRIL shows a two-stage, clade-specific evolutionary process and is fully developed only in simians. The domestication of multiple transposons indicates an impressive pattern of "evolutionary tinkering" and is likely to be important for ANRIL's structure and function. The evolution of lncRNAs and that of transposons may be highly co-opted in primates. Many lncRNAs may be functional only in simians.

Matching of Soulmates: coevolution of snoRNAs and their targets

Ribosomal and small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) comprise numerous modified nucleotides. The modification patterns are retained during evolution, making it even possible to project them from yeast onto human. The stringent conservation of modification sites and the slow evolution of rRNAs and snRNAs contradicts the rapid evolution of small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) sequences. To explain this discrepancy, we investigated the coevolution of snoRNAs and their targeted sites throughout vertebrates. To measure and evaluate the conservation of RNA-RNA interactions, we defined the interaction conservation index (ICI). It combines the quality of individual interaction with the scope of its conservation in a set of species and serves as an efficient measure to evaluate the conservation of the interaction of snoRNA and target. We show that functions of homologous snoRNAs are evolutionarily stable, thus, members of the same snoRNA family guide equivalent modifications. The conservation of snoRNA sequences is high at target binding regions while the remaining sequence varies significantly. In addition to elucidating principles of correlated evolution, we were able, with the help of the ICI measure, to assign functions to previously orphan snoRNAs and to associate snoRNAs as partners to known chemical modifications unassigned to a given snoRNA. Furthermore, we used predictions of snoRNA functions in conjunction with sequence conservation to identify distant homologies. Because of the high overall entropy of snoRNA sequences, such relationships are hard to detect by means of sequence homology search methods alone.

Reconstruction of ancestral 16S rRNA reveals mutation bias in the evolution of optimal growth temperature in the Thermotogae phylum

Optimal growth temperature is a complex trait involving many cellular components, and its physiology is not yet fully understood. Evolution of continuous characters, such as optimal growth temperature, is often modeled as a one-dimensional random walk, but such a model may be an oversimplification given the complex processes underlying the evolution of continuous characters. Recent articles have used ancestral sequence reconstruction to infer the optimal growth temperature of ancient organisms from the guanine and cytosine content of the stem regions of ribosomal RNA, allowing inferences about the evolution of optimal growth temperature. Here, we investigate the optimal growth temperature of the bacterial phylum Thermotogae. Ancestral sequence reconstruction using a nonhomogeneous model was used to reconstruct the stem guanine and cytosine content of 16S rRNA sequences. We compare this sequence reconstruction method with other ancestral character reconstruction methods, and show that sequence reconstruction generates smaller confidence intervals and different ancestral values than other reconstruction methods. Unbiased random walk simulation indicates that the lower temperature members of the Thermotogales have been under directional selection; however, when a simulation is performed that takes possible mutations into account, it is the high temperature lineages that are, in fact, under directional selection. We find that the evolution of Thermotogales optimal growth temperatures is best fit by a biased random walk model. These findings suggest that it may be easier to evolve from a high optimal growth temperature to a lower one than vice versa.

Molecular phylogeny of kinorhynchs

We reconstructed kinorhynch phylogeny using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian analyses of nuclear 18S and 28S rRNA gene sequences from 30 species in 13 genera (18S) and 23 species in 12 genera (28S), representing eight families and both orders (Cyclorhagida and Homalorhagida) currently recognized in the phylum. We analyzed the two genes individually (18S and 28S datasets) and in combination (18S+28S dataset). We detected four main clades (I-IV). Clade I consisted of family Echinoderidae. Clade II contained representatives of Zelinkaderidae, Antygomonidae, Semnoderidae, Centroderes, and Condyloderes, the latter two currently classified in Centroderidae; within Clade II, Zelinkaderidae, Antygomonidae, and Semnoderidae comprised a clade with strong nodal support. Clade III contained only two species in Campyloderes, also currently classified in the Centroderidae, indicating polyphyly for this family. Clades I-III, containing all representatives of Cyclorhagida included in the analysis except for Dracoderes abei, formed a clade with high nodal support in the 28S and 18S+28S trees. Clade IV, resolved in the 18S and 18S+28S trees with high nodal support, contained only species in order Homalorhagida, with the exception of the cyclorhagid Dracoderes abei. Order Cyclorhagida as it currently stands is thus polyphyletic, and order Homalorhagida paraphyletic. Our results indicate that Dracoderidae has been misplaced in Cyclorhagida based on homoplasious characters. Our analyses did not resolve the relationships among Clades I-III within Cyclorhagida. Neither gene alone nor the combined dataset resolved all nodes in trees, indicating that additional markers will be needed to reconstruct kinorhynch phylogeny.

High lability of sexual system over 250 million years of evolution in morphologically conservative tadpole shrimps

BACKGROUND

Sexual system is a key factor affecting the genetic diversity, population structure, genome structure and the evolutionary potential of species. The sexual system androdioecy - where males and hermaphrodites coexist in populations - is extremely rare, yet is found in three crustacean groups, barnacles, a genus of clam shrimps Eulimnadia, and in the order Notostraca, the tadpole shrimps. In the ancient crustacean order Notostraca, high morphological conservatism contrasts with a wide diversity of sexual systems, including androdioecy. An understanding of the evolution of sexual systems in this group has been hampered by poor phylogenetic resolution and confounded by the widespread occurrence of cryptic species. Here we use a multigene supermatrix for 30 taxa to produce a comprehensive phylogenetic reconstruction of Notostraca. Based on this phylogenetic reconstruction we use character mapping techniques to investigate the evolution of sexual systems. We also tested the hypothesis that reproductive assurance has driven the evolution of androdioecy in Notostraca.

RESULTS

Character mapping analysis showed that sexual system is an extremely flexible trait within Notostraca, with repeated shifts between gonochorism and androdioecy, the latter having evolved a minimum of five times. In agreement with the reproductive assurance hypothesis androdioecious notostracans are found at significantly higher latitudes than gonochoric ones indicating that post glacial re-colonisation may have selected for the higher colonisation ability conferred by androdioecy.

CONCLUSIONS

In contrast to their conserved morphology, sexual system in Notostraca is highly labile and the rare reproductive mode androdioecy has evolved repeatedly within the order. Furthermore, we conclude that this lability of sexual system has been maintained for at least 250 million years and may have contributed to the long term evolutionary persistence of Notostraca. Our results further our understanding of the evolution of androdioecy and indicate that reproductive assurance is a recurrent theme involved in the evolution of this sexual system.

Airn transcriptional overlap, but not its lncRNA products, induces imprinted Igf2r silencing

Mammalian imprinted genes often cluster with long noncoding (lnc) RNAs. Three lncRNAs that induce parental-specific silencing show hallmarks indicating that their transcription is more important than their product. To test whether Airn transcription or product silences the Igf2r gene, we shortened the endogenous lncRNA to different lengths. The results excluded a role for spliced and unspliced Airn lncRNA products and for Airn nuclear size and location in silencing Igf2r. Instead, silencing only required Airn transcriptional overlap of the Igf2r promoter, which interferes with RNA polymerase II recruitment in the absence of repressive chromatin. Such a repressor function for lncRNA transcriptional overlap reveals a gene silencing mechanism that may be widespread in the mammalian genome, given the abundance of lncRNA transcripts.

Colliding fragment islands transport independent lineages of endemic rock-crawlers (Grylloblattodea: Grylloblattidae) in the Japanese archipelago

Fragment islands, viewed from the paradigm of island biogeographic theory, depend on continual immigration from continental sources to maintain levels of species diversity, or otherwise undergo a period of relaxation where species diversity declines to a lower equilibrium. Japan is a recently derived fragment island with a rich endemic flora and fauna. These endemic species have been described as paleoendemics, and conversely as recently derived Pleistocene colonists. Geological events in the Miocene period, notably the fragmentation and collision of islands, and the subsequent uplift of mountains in central Japan, provided opportunities for genetic isolation. More recently, cyclical climatic change during the Pliocene and Pleistocene periods led to intermittent land bridge connections to continental Asia. Here we investigate the pattern and timing of diversification in a diverse endemic lineage in order to test whether ongoing migration has sustained species diversity, whether there is evidence of relaxation, and how geological and climatic events are associated with lineage diversification. Using multi-locus genetic data, we test these hypotheses in a poorly dispersing, cold-adapted terrestrial insect lineage (Grylloblattodea: Grylloblattidae) sampled from Japan, Korea, and Russia. In phylogenetic analyses of concatenated data and a species tree approach, we find evidence of three deeply divergent lineages of rock-crawlers in Japan consistent with the pattern of island fragmentation from continental Asia. Tests of lineage diversification rates suggest that relaxation has not occurred and instead endemism has increased in the Japanese Grylloblattidae following mountain-building events in the Miocene. Although the importance of climate change in generating species diversity is a commonly held paradigm in Japanese biogeography, our analyses, including analyses of demographic change and phylogeographic range shifts in putative species, suggests that Pleistocene climatic change has had a limited effect on the diversification of rock-crawlers.

Into the Himalayan exile: the phylogeography of the ground beetle Ethira clade supports the Tibetan origin of forest-dwelling Himalayan species groups

The Himalayan mountain arc is one of the hotspots of biodiversity on earth, and species diversity is expected to be especially high among insects in this region. Little is known about the origin of the Himalayan insect fauna. With respect to the fauna of high altitude cloud forests, it has generally been accepted that Himalayan lineages are derived from ancestors that immigrated from Western Asia and from adjacent mountainous regions of East and Southeast Asia (immigration hypothesis). In this study, we sought to test a Tibetan Origin as an alternative hypothesis for groups with a poor dispersal ability through a phylogeographic analysis of the Ethira clade of the genus Pterostichus. We sequenced COI mtDNA and the 18S and 28S rDNA genes in 168 Pterostichini specimens, including 46 species and subspecies of the Ethira clade. In our analysis, we were able to show that the Ethira clade is monophyletic and, thus, represents a Himalayan endemic clade, supporting endemism of two of the basal lineages to the Central Himalaya and documenting large distributional gaps within the phylogeographic structure of the Ethira clade. Furthermore, the molecular data strongly indicate very limited dispersal abilities of species and subspecies of these primary wingless ground beetles. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of a Tibetan Origin, which explains the evolution, diversity and distribution of the Himalayan ground beetle Ethira clade much more parsimoniously than the original immigration hypothesis.

Shared Ancestry of Symbionts? Sagrinae and Donaciinae (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) Harbor Similar Bacteria

When symbioses between insects and bacteria are discussed, the origin of a given association is regularly of interest. We examined the evolution of the symbiosis between reed beetles (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Donaciinae) and intracellular symbionts belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae. We analyzed the partial sequence of the 16S rRNA to assess the phylogenetic relationships with bacteria we found in other beetle groups (Cerambycidae, Anobiidae, other Chrysomelidae). We discuss the ecology of each association in the context of the phylogenetic analysis. The bacteria in Sagra femorata (Chrysomelidae, Sagrinae) are very closely related to those in the Donaciinae and are located in similar mycetomes. The Sagrinae build a cocoon for pupation like the Donaciinae, in which the bacteria produce the material required for the cocoon. These aspects support the close relationship between Sagrinae and Donaciinae derived in earlier studies and make a common ancestry of the symbioses likely. Using PCR primers specific for fungi, we found Candida sp. in the mycetomes of a cerambycid beetle along with the bacteria.

ViennaRNA Package 2.0

Background

Secondary structure forms an important intermediate level of description of nucleic acids that encapsulates the dominating part of the folding energy, is often well conserved in evolution, and is routinely used as a basis to explain experimental findings. Based on carefully measured thermodynamic parameters, exact dynamic programming algorithms can be used to compute ground states, base pairing probabilities, as well as thermodynamic properties.

Results

The ViennaRNA Package has been a widely used compilation of RNA secondary structure related computer programs for nearly two decades. Major changes in the structure of the standard energy model, the Turner 2004 parameters, the pervasive use of multi-core CPUs, and an increasing number of algorithmic variants prompted a major technical overhaul of both the underlying RNAlib and the interactive user programs. New features include an expanded repertoire of tools to assess RNA-RNA interactions and restricted ensembles of structures, additional output information such as centroid structures and maximum expected accuracy structures derived from base pairing probabilities, or z-scores for locally stable secondary structures, and support for input in fasta format. Updates were implemented without compromising the computational efficiency of the core algorithms and ensuring compatibility with earlier versions.

Conclusions

The ViennaRNA Package 2.0, supporting concurrent computations via OpenMP, can be downloaded from http://www.tbi.univie.ac.at/RNA.

Potential pitfalls of modelling ribosomal RNA data in phylogenetic tree reconstruction: evidence from case studies in the Metazoa

Background

Failure to account for covariation patterns in helical regions of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes has the potential to misdirect the estimation of the phylogenetic signal of the data. Furthermore, the extremes of length variation among taxa, combined with regional substitution rate variation can mislead the alignment of rRNA sequences and thus distort subsequent tree reconstructions. However, recent developments in phylogenetic methodology now allow a comprehensive integration of secondary structures in alignment and tree reconstruction analyses based on rRNA sequences, which has been shown to correct some of these problems. Here, we explore the potentials of RNA substitution models and the interactions of specific model setups with the inherent pattern of covariation in rRNA stems and substitution rate variation among loop regions.

Results

We found an explicit impact of RNA substitution models on tree reconstruction analyses. The application of specific RNA models in tree reconstructions is hampered by interaction between the appropriate modelling of covarying sites in stem regions, and excessive homoplasy in some loop regions. RNA models often failed to recover reasonable trees when single-stranded regions are excessively homoplastic, because these regions contribute a greater proportion of the data when covarying sites are essentially downweighted. In this context, the RNA6A model outperformed all other models, including the more parametrized RNA7 and RNA16 models.

Conclusions

Our results depict a trade-off between increased accuracy in estimation of interdependencies in helical regions with the risk of magnifying positions lacking phylogenetic signal. We can therefore conclude that caution is warranted when applying rRNA covariation models, and suggest that loop regions be independently screened for phylogenetic signal, and eliminated when they are indistinguishable from random noise. In addition to covariation and homoplasy, other factors, like non-stationarity of substitution rates and base compositional heterogeneity, can disrupt the signal of ribosomal RNA data. All these factors dictate sophisticated estimation of evolutionary pattern in rRNA data, just as other molecular data require similarly complicated (but different) corrections.

Structural diversity of eukaryotic 18S rRNA and its impact on alignment and phylogenetic reconstruction

Ribosomal RNAs are important because they catalyze the synthesis of peptides and proteins. Comparative studies of the secondary structure of 18S rRNA have revealed the basic locations of its many length-conserved and length-variable regions. In recent years, many more sequences of 18S rDNA with unusual lengths have been documented in GenBank. These data make it possible to recognize the diversity of the secondary and tertiary structures of 18S rRNAs and to identify the length-conserved parts of 18S rDNAs. The longest 18S rDNA sequences of almost every known eukaryotic phylum were included in this study. We illustrated the bioinformatics-based structure to show that, the regions that are more length-variable, regions that are less length-variable, the splicing sites for introns, and the sites of A-minor interactions are mostly distributed in different parts of the 18S rRNA. Additionally, this study revealed that some length-variable regions or insertion positions could be quite close to the functional part of the 18S rRNA of Foraminifera organisms. The tertiary structure as well as the secondary structure of 18S rRNA can be more diverse than what was previously supposed. Besides revealing how this interesting gene evolves, it can help to remove ambiguity from the alignment of eukaryotic 18S rDNAs and to improve the performance of 18S rDNA in phylogenetic reconstruction. Six nucleotides shared by Archaea and Eukaryota but rarely by Bacteria are also reported here for the first time, which might further support the supposed origin of eukaryote from archaeans.

Generalized centroid estimators in bioinformatics

In a number of estimation problems in bioinformatics, accuracy measures of the target problem are usually given, and it is important to design estimators that are suitable to those accuracy measures. However, there is often a discrepancy between an employed estimator and a given accuracy measure of the problem. In this study, we introduce a general class of efficient estimators for estimation problems on high-dimensional binary spaces, which represent many fundamental problems in bioinformatics. Theoretical analysis reveals that the proposed estimators generally fit with commonly-used accuracy measures (e.g. sensitivity, PPV, MCC and F-score) as well as it can be computed efficiently in many cases, and cover a wide range of problems in bioinformatics from the viewpoint of the principle of maximum expected accuracy (MEA). It is also shown that some important algorithms in bioinformatics can be interpreted in a unified manner. Not only the concept presented in this paper gives a useful framework to design MEA-based estimators but also it is highly extendable and sheds new light on many problems in bioinformatics.

Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic affinities of two groundwater amphipods, Crangonyx islandicus and Crymostygius thingvallensis, endemic to Iceland

The amphipod superfamily Crangonyctoidea is distributed exclusively in freshwater habitats worldwide and is characteristic of subterranean habitats. Two members of the family, Crangonyx islandicus and Crymostygius thingvallensis, are endemic to Iceland and were recently discovered in groundwater underneath lava fields. Crangonyx islandicus belongs to a well-known genus with representatives both in North America and in Eurasia. Crymostygius thingvallensis defines a new family, Crymostygidae. Considering the incongruences observed recently between molecular and morphological taxonomy within subterranean species, we aim to assess the taxonomical status of the two species using molecular data. Additionally, the study contributes to the phylogenetic relationships among several crangonyctoidean species and specifically among species from four genera of the family Crangonyctidae. Given the available data we consider how the two Icelandic species could have colonized Iceland, by comparing geographical origin of the species with the phylogeny. Regions of two nuclear (18S and 28S rRNA) and two mitochondrial genes (16S rRNA and COI) for 20 different species of three families of the Crangonyctoidea were sequenced. Four different methods were used to align the RNA gene sequences and phylogenetic trees were constructed using bayesian and maximum likelihood analysis. The Crangonyctidae monophyly is supported. Crangonyx islandicus appeared more closely related to species from the Nearctic region. Crymostygius thingvallensis is clearly divergent from the other species of Crangonyctoidea. Crangonyx and Synurella genera are clearly polyphyletic and showed a geographical association, being split into a Nearctic and a Palearctic group. This research confirms that the studied species of Crangonyctidae share a common ancestor, which was probably widespread in the Northern hemisphere well before the break up of Laurasia. The Icelandic species are of particular interest since Iceland emerged after the separation of Eurasia and North America, is geographically isolated and has repeatedly been covered by glaciers during the Ice Age. The close relation between Crangonyx islandicus and North American species supports the hypothesis of the Trans-Atlantic land bridge between Greenland and Iceland which might have persisted until 6 million years ago. The status of the family Crymostygidae is supported, whereas Crangonyx islandicus might represent a new genus. As commonly observed in subterranean animals, molecular and morphological taxonomy led to different conclusions, probably due to convergent evolution of morphological traits. Our molecular analysis suggests that the family Crangonyctidae needs taxonomic revisions.

Improving the accuracy of predicting secondary structure for aligned RNA sequences

Considerable attention has been focused on predicting the secondary structure for aligned RNA sequences since it is useful not only for improving the limiting accuracy of conventional secondary structure prediction but also for finding non-coding RNAs in genomic sequences. Although there exist many algorithms of predicting secondary structure for aligned RNA sequences, further improvement of the accuracy is still awaited. In this article, toward improving the accuracy, a theoretical classification of state-of-the-art algorithms of predicting secondary structure for aligned RNA sequences is presented. The classification is based on the viewpoint of maximum expected accuracy (MEA), which has been successfully applied in various problems in bioinformatics. The classification reveals several disadvantages of the current algorithms but we propose an improvement of a previously introduced algorithm (CentroidAlifold). Finally, computational experiments strongly support the theoretical classification and indicate that the improved CentroidAlifold substantially outperforms other algorithms.

The impact of rRNA secondary structure consideration in alignment and tree reconstruction: simulated data and a case study on the phylogeny of hexapods

The use of secondary structures has been advocated to improve both the alignment and the tree reconstruction processes of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) data sets. We used simulated and empirical rRNA data to test the impact of secondary structure consideration in both steps of molecular phylogenetic analyses. A simulation approach was used to generate realistic rRNA data sets based on real 16S, 18S, and 28S sequences and structures in combination with different branch length and topologies. Alignment and tree reconstruction performance of four recent structural alignment methods was compared with exclusively sequence-based approaches. As empirical data, we used a hexapod rRNA data set to study the influence of nucleotide interdependencies in sequence alignment and tree reconstruction. Structural alignment methods delivered significantly better sequence alignments compared with pure sequence-based methods. Also, structural alignment methods delivered better trees judged by topological congruence to simulation base trees. However, the advantage of structural alignments was less pronounced and even vanished in several instances. For simulated data, application of mixed RNA/DNA models to stems and loops, respectively, led to significantly shorter branches. The application of mixed RNA/DNA models in the hexapod analyses delivered partly implausible relationships. This can be interpreted as a stronger sensitivity of mixed model setups to nonphylogenetic signal. Secondary structure consideration clearly influenced sequence alignment and tree reconstruction of ribosomal genes. Although sequence alignment quality can considerably be improved by the use of secondary structure information, the application of mixed models in tree reconstructions needs further studies to understand the observed effects.

FASconCAT: Convenient handling of data matrices

FASconCAT is a user-friendly software that concatenates rapidly different kinds of sequence data into one supermatrix file. Output files are either in FASTA, PHYLIP or NEXUS format and are directly loadable in phylogenetic programs like PAUP *, RAxML or MrBayes. FASconCAT can handle FASTA, PHYLIP and CLUSTAL formatted input files in one single run. It provides useful information about each input file and the concatenated supermatrix. For example, the program provides the range information of each concatenated gene (partition) and delivers a check list of all concatenated sequences (taxa). Information about the base composition of single input files and the resulting supermatrix is supplied for nucleotide data. For given structure strings (e.g. secondary structures) it displays single unpaired (loop) and paired (stem) positions after the concatenation process. Optionally, FASconCAT generates NEXUS files of concatenated sequences, either with MrBayes commands directly executable in PAUP * and MrBayes, or without any specific commands. If favoured, FASconCAT dispenses output files in PHYLIP format with relaxed (unlimited signs) or restricted taxon names (up to ten signs) while sequences are printed in non-interleaved format. FASconCAT is implemented in Perl and freely available from http://software.zfmk.de. It runs on UNIX and MS Windows operating systems.

Fast evolving 18S rRNA sequences from Solenogastres (Mollusca) resist standard PCR amplification and give new insights into mollusk substitution rate heterogeneity

BACKGROUND

The 18S rRNA gene is one of the most important molecular markers, used in diverse applications such as molecular phylogenetic analyses and biodiversity screening. The Mollusca is the second largest phylum within the animal kingdom and mollusks show an outstanding high diversity in body plans and ecological adaptations. Although an enormous amount of 18S data is available for higher mollusks, data on some early branching lineages are still limited. Despite of some partial success in obtaining these data from Solenogastres, by some regarded to be the most "basal" mollusks, this taxon still remained problematic due to contamination with food organisms and general amplification difficulties.

RESULTS

We report here the first authentic 18S genes of three Solenogastres species (Mollusca), each possessing a unique sequence composition with regions conspicuously rich in guanine and cytosine. For these GC-rich regions we calculated strong secondary structures. The observed high intra-molecular forces hamper standard amplification and appear to increase formation of chimerical sequences caused by contaminating foreign DNAs from potential prey organisms. In our analyses, contamination was avoided by using RNA as a template. Indication for contamination of previously published Solenogastres sequences is presented. Detailed phylogenetic analyses were conducted using RNA specific models that account for compensatory substitutions in stem regions.

CONCLUSIONS

The extreme morphological diversity of mollusks is mirrored in the molecular 18S data and shows elevated substitution rates mainly in three higher taxa: true limpets (Patellogastropoda), Cephalopoda and Solenogastres. Our phylogenetic tree based on 123 species, including representatives of all mollusk classes, shows limited resolution at the class level but illustrates the pitfalls of artificial groupings formed due to shared biased sequence composition.

RNAsnoop: efficient target prediction for H/ACA snoRNAs

MOTIVATION

Small nucleolar RNAs are an abundant class of non-coding RNAs that guide chemical modifications of rRNAs, snRNAs and some mRNAs. In the case of many 'orphan' snoRNAs, the targeted nucleotides remain unknown, however. The box H/ACA subclass determines uridine residues that are to be converted into pseudouridines via specific complementary binding in a well-defined secondary structure configuration that is outside the scope of common RNA (co-)folding algorithms.

RESULTS

RNAsnoop implements a dynamic programming algorithm that computes thermodynamically optimal H/ACA-RNA interactions in an efficient scanning variant. Complemented by an support vector machine (SVM)-based machine learning approach to distinguish true binding sites from spurious solutions and a system to evaluate comparative information, it presents an efficient and reliable tool for the prediction of H/ACA snoRNA target sites. We apply RNAsnoop to identify the snoRNAs that are responsible for several of the remaining 'orphan' pseudouridine modifications in human rRNAs, and we assign a target to one of the five orphan H/ACA snoRNAs in Drosophila.

AVAILABILITY

The C source code of RNAsnoop is freely available at http://www.tbi.univie.ac.at/ -htafer/RNAsnoop