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Reply to: Phylogenetic affiliation of mitochondria with Alpha-II and Rickettsiales is an artefact

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 1832–1835 (2022)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 24 October 2022

replying to: J. Martijn et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01871-3 (2022)

Martijn et al.1 argue that phylogenetic data support a sister group relationship between Alphaproteobacteria and mitochondria, in contrast with our findings2 that mitochondria branch within Alphaproteobacteria. We disagree with their conclusion and below we discuss multiple criticisms of their approach, including data filtration, interpretation of results, datasets used and taxonomic declarations.

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Fig. 1: Gene sampling and taxonomic declarations by Martijn et al. pose problems when inferring the origin of mitochondria.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China

    Lu Fan & Chuanlun Zhang

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Archaea Geo-Omics, Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen, China

    Lu Fan & Chuanlun Zhang

  3. The Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Dingfeng Wu & Ruixin Zhu

  4. Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione E. Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy

    Vadim Goremykin

  5. Institute of Molecular Evolution, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Katharina Trost, Michael Knopp & William F. Martin

Authors
  1. Lu Fan
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  2. Dingfeng Wu
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  4. Katharina Trost
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  7. William F. Martin
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  8. Ruixin Zhu
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Contributions

L.F., K.T., W.F.M. and R.Z. drafted the reply. All co-authors contributed to the text. D.W., V.G., M.K. and C.Z. revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lu Fan, William F. Martin or Ruixin Zhu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Fan, L., Wu, D., Goremykin, V. et al. Reply to: Phylogenetic affiliation of mitochondria with Alpha-II and Rickettsiales is an artefact. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1832–1835 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01896-8

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