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Updated: Dec 29, 2025

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

A large-scale species level dated angiosperm phylogeny for evolutionary and ecological analyses.

Steven B Janssens^1,2, Thomas L P Couvreur³, Arne Mertens¹

¹Botanic Garden Meise, Meise, Belgium Botanic Garden Meise Meise Belgium.

Biodiversity Data Journal

|February 5, 2020

Summary

Researchers built a large, dated phylogenetic tree of flowering plants using DNA data from over 36,000 species. This new angiosperm phylogeny provides a framework for broad-scale evolutionary and ecological research.

Keywords:

angiosperms ecology evolution large-scale dating analyses phylogeny

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Ecology
Phylogenetics

Background:

Phylogenetic trees are crucial for evolutionary and ecological studies.
Large-scale phylogenetic analyses at the order level or higher for angiosperms are limited.
Existing phylogenies often lack the scope for comprehensive meta-analyses.

Purpose of the Study:

To reconstruct a large-scale, dated phylogeny of angiosperms.
To provide a phylogenetic framework for broad-scale ecological and evolutionary research.
To include a significant portion of angiosperm diversity in a single phylogenetic tree.

Main Methods:

Reconstruction of a dated phylogeny using two plastid barcoding genes (matK and rbcL).
Generation of novel sequences and data mining from GenBank.
Dating the phylogeny using 56 angiosperm fossil calibration points.

Main Results:

A megaphylogeny of angiosperms was constructed, comprising 36,101 species.
The phylogeny represents 8,399 genera, 426 families, and all angiosperm orders.
This represents one of the largest dated phylogenetic trees of angiosperms to date.

Conclusions:

The novel angiosperm phylogeny serves as a valuable framework for large-scale research.
It facilitates investigations into broad-scale questions in ecological and evolutionary biology.
Enables future meta-analyses at higher taxonomic levels.