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Review
. 2006;7(12):245.
doi: 10.1186/gb-2006-7-12-245.

Photosynthesis: what color was its origin?

Jin Xiong  1
Affiliations
Review

Photosynthesis: what color was its origin?

Jin Xiong. Genome Biol. 2006.

Abstract

Recent studies using geological and molecular phylogenetic evidence suggest several alternative evolutionary scenarios for the origin of photosynthesis. The earliest photosynthetic group is variously thought to be heliobacteria, proteobacteria or a precursor of cyanobacteria, organisms whose photosynthetic pigments make them different colors.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Four representative scenarios for the early evolution of the photosynthetic process among photosynthetic bacteria. (a) The branching order of photosynthetic organisms based on 16S rRNA [4,18,19]. (b) The branching order for photosynthetic organisms proposed by Gupta and coworkers [20] using heat shock proteins; (c) the branching order that we [29] derived from analysis of (bacterio)chlorophyll biosynthesis genes (yellow arrows represent the direction of lateral gene transfer for the type II reaction center; green arrows represent the direction of lateral gene transfer for the type I reaction center); and (d) the branching order evolutionary pathway derived from analysis of photosynthesis genes by Galperin and coworkers [2] (black arrows represent the direction of lateral gene transfer for some photosynthesis genes).
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