Review

Molecular phylogenetics of Trypanosomatidae: contrasting results from 18S rRNA and protein phylogenies

Austin L Hughes and Helen Piontkivska

Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC 29205 USA

Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease 2003, 2:15doi:10.1186/1475-9292-2-15

Published:	28 October 2003

Abstract

Phylogenetic analyses of the family Trypanosomatidae have been conducted using both 18S rRNA gene sequences and a variety of protein sequences. Using a variety of phylogenetic methods, 18S rRNA phylogenies indicate that the genus Trypanosoma is not monophyletic. Rather, they suggest that the American and African trypanosomes constitute distinct clades. By contrast, phylogenetic analyses of available sequences in 42 protein families gene generally supported monophyly of the genus Trypanosoma. One possible explanation for these conflicting results is poor taxon sampling in the case of protein coding genes, most of which have been sequenced for only a few species of Trypanosomatidae.