Nozaki H
Origin and evolution of the genera Pleodorina and Volvox (Volvocales) 
BIOLOGIA 58 (4): 425-431 JUL 2003

 

Abstract: The previous molecular phylogenetic study using 6021 base pairs from five chloroplast genes suggested that two species of Pleodorina (P. californica, P. japonica) might have evolved from a Volvox-like alga by the decrease in colony cell number and size. However, number of species of the genus Volvox was very limited especially in the section Merrillosphaera.

In the present study, 6021 base pairs of the concatenated five chloroplast genes from 10 strains representing seven taxa of the genus Volvox were added to the previous data matrix. The sequence data resolved two anisogamous/oogamous clades within a large monophyletic group comprising five advanced genera of the Volvocaceae (Yamagishiella, Platydorina, Eudorina, Pleodorina and Volvox), one containing Volvox sect. Volvox and the anisogamous genus Platydorina (32-celled flattened colony), and the other (Eudorina group) composed of three other sections of Volvox, Pleodorina and Eudorina. The isogamous genus Yamagishiella (32-celled colony) was positioned basally to the Eudorina group. Therefore, evolution of anisogamy with sperm packets from isogamy might have occurred twice within the Volvocaceae. Based on the present molecular phylogenetic analysis, species of Volvox and Pleodorina within the Eudorina group represented three and two, respectively, separate lineages. One the three Volvox lineages [composed of V (sect. Merrillosphaera) carteri, V (sect. Merrillosphaera) obversus, V. (sect. Merrillosphaera) tertius, V. (sect. Merrillosphaera) africanus and V (sect. Copelandosphaera) dissipatrix] was sister to the monophyletic group consisting of one of the two Pleodorina lineages (P. californica and P. japonica) and V (sect. Janetosphaera) aureus. In addition, species of Eudorina were basal to the two lineages of Pleodorina and three Volvox lineages within the Eudorina group, representing the ancestral situation of Pleodorina/Volvox (excluding sect. Volvox). Thus, reverse evolution from a Volvox-like alga to Pleodorina suggested previously appears unlikely.

 

Nozaki H, Misawa K, Kajita T, et al.
Origin and evolution of the colonial Volvocales (Chlorophyceae) as inferred from multiple, chloroplast gene sequences 
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION 17 (2): 256-268 NOV 2000

 

Abstract: A combined data set of DNA sequences (6021 bp) from five protein-coding genes of the chloroplast genome (rbcL, atpB, psaA, psaB, and psbC genes) were analyzed for 42 strains representing 30 species of the colonial Volvocales (Volvox and its relatives) and 5 related species of green algae to deduce robust phylogenetic relationships within the colonial green flagellates. The 4-celled family Tetrabaenaceae was robustly resolved as the most basal group within the colonial Volvocales. The sequence data also suggested that all five volvocacean genera with 32 or more cells in a vegetative colony (all four of the anisogamous/oogamous genera, Eudorina, Platydorina, Pleodorina, and Volvox, plus the isogamous genus Yamagishiella) constituted a large monophyletic group, in which 2 Pleodorina species were positioned distally to 3 species of Volvox. Therefore, most of the evolution of the colonial Volvocales appears to constitute a gradual progression in colonial complexity and in types of sexual reproduction, as in the traditional volvocine lineage hypothesis, although reverse evolution must be considered for the origin of certain species of Pleodorina. Data presented here also provide robust support for a monophyletic family Goniaceae consisting of two genera: Gonium and Astrephomene.

 

Coleman AW
Phylogenetic analysis of "Volvocacae" for comparative genetic studies 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 96 (24): 13892-13897
NOV 23 1999

 

Abstract: Sequence analysis based on multiple isolates representing essentially all genera and species of the classic family Volvocaeae has clarified their phylogenetic relationships. Cloned internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS-1. and ITS-2, flanking the 5.8S gene of the nuclear ribosomal gene cistrons) were aligned, guided by ITS transcript secondary structural features, and subjected to parsimony and neighbor joining distance analysis. Results confirm the notion of a single common ancestor, and Chlamydomonas reinharditii alone among all sequenced green unicells is most similar. interbreeding isolates were nearest neighbors on the evolutionary tree in all cases. Some taxa, at whatever level, prove to be clades by sequence comparisons, but others provide striking exceptions. The morphological species Pandorina morum, known to be widespread and diverse in mating pairs, was found to encompass all of the isolates of the four species of Volvulina. Platydorina appears to have originated early and not to fall within the genus Eudorina, with which it can sometimes be confused by morphology. The four species of Pleodorina appear variously associated with Eudorina examples. Although the species of Volvox are each clades, the genus Volvox is not The conclusions confirm and extend prior, more limited, studies on nuclear SSU and LSU rDNA genes and plastid-encoded rbcL and atpB. The phylogenetic tree suggests which classical taxonomic characters are most misleading and provides a framework for molecular studies of the cell cycle-related and other alterations that have engendered diversity in both vegetative and sexual colony patterns in this classical family.

 

 

Nozaki H, Ito M, Sano R, et al.
Phylogenetic analysis of Yamagishiella and Platydorina (Volvocaceae, Chlorophyta) based on rbcL gene sequences 
JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 33 (2): 272-278 APR 1997

 

Abstract: Yamagishiella, based on Pandorina unicocca Rayburn et Starr is distinguished from Eudorina by its isogamous sexual reproduction, whereas Platydorina exhibits anisogamous sexual reproduction. In the present study, rue sequenced the large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rbcL) genes from five Japanese and North American strains of Y. unicocca (Rayburn et Stair) Nozaki, true Platydorina caudata Kofoid strains, and two strains of Eudorina unicocca G. M. Smith, as well as eight related colonial and unicellular species. Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on these sequence data and on previously published rbcL gene sequences from 23 volvocalean species in order to deduce phylogenetic relationships within the colonial Volvocales, with particular regard to the phylogenetic positions and status of the genera Yamagishiella and Platydorina. Two robust monophyletic groups of the anisogamous/oogamous volvocacean species were resolved in the maximum-parsimony tree as well as in the neighbor-joining distance tree. One of the two groups comprises three species of Volvox section Volvox, whereas the other is composed of other sections of Volvox as well as of all the species of Eudorina and Pleodorina. Platydorina, however, was positioned outside these two monophyletic groups. Therefore, derivation of the Platydorina lineage may be earlier than that of such anisogamous/oogamous groups, or origin of ''anisogamy with sperm, packets'' in Platydorina may De independent of sperm packet evolution in Eudorina, Pleodorina, and Volvox. It was also resolved with high bootstrap values that all of the Y. unicocca strains form a monophyletic group positioned outside the large monophyletic group including Eudorina and Pleodorina. These reject the possibility of the reverse evolution of isogamy from anisogamy to give rise to Yamagishiella within the lineage of Eudorina.

 

 

Title: DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLAGELLAR APPARATUS AND FLAGELLAR POSITION IN THE COLONIAL GREEN-ALGA PLATYDORINA-CAUDATA (CHLOROPHYCEAE)

Author(s): TAYLOR MG, FLOYD GL, HOOPS HJ

Source: JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 21 (4): 533-546 DEC 1985

 

 

CRAYTON MA
PRESENCE OF A SULFATED POLYSACCHARIDE IN THE EXTRACELLULAR-MATRIX OF PLATYDORINA-CAUDATA (VOLVOCALES, CHLOROPHYTA) 
JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 16 (1): 80-87 1980

 

HARRIS DO
LIFE-HISTORY AND GROWTH INHIBITION STUDIES IN PLATYDORINA-CAUDATA (VOLVOCACEAE) 
BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE BOTANIQUE DE
FRANCE : 161-174 1972

 

HARRIS DO
AN AUTOINHIBITORY SUBSTANCE PRODUCED BY PLATYDORINA-CAUDATA KOFOID 
PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 45 (2): 210& 1970

 

HARRIS DO
NUTRITION OF PLATYDORINA CAUDATA KOFOID 
JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 5 (3): 205& 1969

 

HARRIS DO
AN AUTO-INHIBITORY SUBSTANCE PRODUCED BY PLATYDORINA CAUDATA 
JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY S 3: 9& Suppl. S 1967