Phylogenetic tree derived from bacterial, cytosol and organelle 5S rRNA sequences.

A phylogenetic tree was constructed by computer analysis of 47 completely determined 5S rRNA sequences. The wheat mitochondrial sequence is significantly more related to prokaryotic than to eukaryotic sequences, and its affinity to that of the thermophilic Gram-negative bacterium Thermus aquaticus is comparable to the affinity between Anacystis nidulans and chloroplastic sequences. This strongly supports the idea of an endosymbiotic origin of plant mitochondria. A comparison of the plant cytosol and chloroplast sub-trees suggests a similar rate of nucleotide substitution in nuclear genes and chloroplastic genes. Other features of the tree are a common precursor of protozoa and metazoa, which appears to be more related to the fungal than to the plant protosequence, and an early divergence of the archebacterial sequence (Halobacterium cutirubrum) from the prokaryotic branch.