Origin and evolution of organisms as deduced from 5S ribosomal RNA sequences.

A phylogenetic tree of most of the major groups of organisms has been constructed from the 352 5S ribosomal RNA sequences now available. The tree suggests that there are several major groups of eubacteria that diverged during the early stages of their evolution. Metabacteria (= archaebacteria) and eukaryotes separated after the emergence of eubacteria. Among eukaryotes, red algae emerged first; and, later, thraustochytrids (a Proctista group), ascomycetes (yeast), green plants (green algae and land plants), "yellow algae" (brown algae, diatoms, and chrysophyte algae), basidiomycetes (mushrooms and rusts), slime- and water molds, various protozoans, and animals emerged, approximately in that order. Three major types of photosynthetic eukaryotes--i.e., red algae (= Chlorophyll a group), green plants (Chl. a + b group) and yellow algae (Chl. a + c)--are remotely related to one another. Other photosynthetic unicellular protozoans--such as Cyanophora (Chl. a), Euglenophyta (Chl. a + b), Cryptophyta (Chl. a + c), and Dinophyta (Chl. a + c)--seem to have separated shortly after the emergence of the yellow algae.