Info req.: molecules/morphology

[B. J. Tindall]

Ken Kinman wrote:
>It may sound old-fashioned to do some analysis without a computer, ......

I do it all the time!

>Until more definitive evidence is presented, or the rDNA sequences are
>analyzed more carefully, I will continue to regard them as an unnamed
Order of >Class Crenarchaea (Phylum Metabacteria/Archaebacteria).
>    Thank goodness Hugenholtz and Pace call their distinctive eubacterial
>groups "Candidate Divisions", because most of them seem to be popping up in
>the parts of prokaryotic phylogenies most affected by Woesian misrooting,
>and I suspect computer programs are exaggerating the distinctiveness of many
>of those groups as well.  But they are not compounding the problem by giving
>them formal names.

Actually the names of higher taxa, such as phyla etc. are not covered by
the current Bacteriological Code anyway, and it is not really sensible to
describe taxa based on one gene sequence anyway (links into what Thomass
Lammers was asking). It will be interesting to see your reaction to the new
edition of Bergey's Manual. However, my guess is that there will continue
to be changes in the next few years/decades. As they say "it will all come
out in the wash".
Brian


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