Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth
Although overwhelming circumstantial evidence supports the existence of the universal common ancestor of all extant life on Earth, it is still an open question whether the universal common ancestor existed or not. Theobald (Nature 465, 219–222 (2010)) recently challenged this problem with a formal s...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2012-01-01
|
| Series: | The Scientific World Journal |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/479824 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832560801796325376 |
|---|---|
| author | Takahiro Yonezawa Masami Hasegawa |
| author_facet | Takahiro Yonezawa Masami Hasegawa |
| author_sort | Takahiro Yonezawa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although overwhelming circumstantial evidence supports the existence of the universal common ancestor of all extant life on Earth, it is still an open question whether the universal common ancestor existed or not. Theobald (Nature 465, 219–222 (2010)) recently challenged this problem with a formal statistical test applied to aligned sequences of conservative proteins sampled from all domains of life and concluded that the universal common ancestor hypothesis holds. However, we point out that there is a fundamental flaw in Theobald's method which used aligned sequences. We show that the alignment gives a strong bias for the common ancestor hypothesis, and we provide an example that Theobald's method supports a common ancestor hypothesis for two apparently unrelated families of protein-encoding sequences (cytb and nd2 of mitochondria). This arouses suspicion about the effectiveness of the “formal” test. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3f595260abb04c00aff0ead4b410df87 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1537-744X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Scientific World Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-3f595260abb04c00aff0ead4b410df872025-02-03T01:26:44ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal1537-744X2012-01-01201210.1100/2012/479824479824Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on EarthTakahiro Yonezawa0Masami Hasegawa1School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, ChinaSchool of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, ChinaAlthough overwhelming circumstantial evidence supports the existence of the universal common ancestor of all extant life on Earth, it is still an open question whether the universal common ancestor existed or not. Theobald (Nature 465, 219–222 (2010)) recently challenged this problem with a formal statistical test applied to aligned sequences of conservative proteins sampled from all domains of life and concluded that the universal common ancestor hypothesis holds. However, we point out that there is a fundamental flaw in Theobald's method which used aligned sequences. We show that the alignment gives a strong bias for the common ancestor hypothesis, and we provide an example that Theobald's method supports a common ancestor hypothesis for two apparently unrelated families of protein-encoding sequences (cytb and nd2 of mitochondria). This arouses suspicion about the effectiveness of the “formal” test.http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/479824 |
| spellingShingle | Takahiro Yonezawa Masami Hasegawa Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth The Scientific World Journal |
| title | Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth |
| title_full | Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth |
| title_fullStr | Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth |
| title_full_unstemmed | Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth |
| title_short | Some Problems in Proving the Existence of the Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth |
| title_sort | some problems in proving the existence of the universal common ancestor of life on earth |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/479824 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT takahiroyonezawa someproblemsinprovingtheexistenceoftheuniversalcommonancestoroflifeonearth AT masamihasegawa someproblemsinprovingtheexistenceoftheuniversalcommonancestoroflifeonearth |