Selection of Orthologous Genes for Construction of a Highly Resolved Phylogenetic Tree and Clarification of the Phylogeny of Trichosporonales Species

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 4;10(8):e0131217. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131217. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The order Trichosporonales (Tremellomycotina, Basidiomycota) includes various species that have clinical, agricultural and biotechnological value. Thus, understanding why and how evolutionary diversification occurred within this order is extremely important. This study clarified the phylogenetic relationships among Tricosporonales species. To select genes suitable for phylogenetic analysis, we determined the draft genomes of 17 Trichosporonales species and extracted 30 protein-coding DNA sequences (CDSs) from genomic data. The CDS regions of Trichosporon asahii and T. faecale were identified by referring to mRNA sequence data since the intron positions of the respective genes differed from those of Cryptococcus neoformans (outgroup) and are not conserved within this order. A multiple alignment of the respective gene was first constructed using the CDSs of T. asahii, T. faecale and C. neoformans, and those of other species were added and aligned based on codons. The phylogenetic trees were constructed based on each gene and a concatenated alignment. Resolution of the maximum-likelihood trees estimated from the concatenated dataset based on both nucleotide (72,531) and amino acid (24,173) sequences were greater than in previous reports. In addition, we found that several genes, such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase TOR1 and glutamate synthase (NADH), had good resolution in this group (even when used alone). Our study proposes a set of genes suitable for constructing a phylogenetic tree with high resolution to examine evolutionary diversification in Trichosporonales. These can also be used for epidemiological and biogeographical studies, and may also serve as the basis for a comprehensive reclassification of pleomorphic fungi.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Basidiomycota / chemistry
  • Basidiomycota / genetics*
  • Fungal Proteins / chemistry
  • Fungal Proteins / genetics*
  • Genes, Fungal*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny*

Substances

  • Fungal Proteins

Grants and funding

This study was supported primarily by a grant from the Institute of Fermentation, Osaka, awarded to MT. RM was supported by a research grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies (the RIKEN Omics Science Center ceased to exist on 1 April 2013 owing to the reorganization of RIKEN) and by a grant of the Innovative Cell Biology by Innovative Technology (the Cell Innovation Program) from MEXT, Japan to Yoshihide Hayashizaki. In silico biology, inc. provided support in the form of salaries for author AO but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.'