Nucleotide sequence ofatpB,rbcL,trnR,dedB andpsaI chloroplast genes from a fernAngiopteris lygodiifolia: a possible emergence of Spermatophyta lineage before the separation of Bryophyta and Pteridophyta

To elucidate the evolutionary relationship between the Spermatophyta, Pteridophyta and Bryophyta, we cloned a fragment of chloroplast DNA from the fernAngiopteris lygodiifolia (Pteridophyta) and determined its nucleotide sequence. The fragment contained theatpB,rbcL,trnR-CCG,dedB andpsaI genes. Comparisons of the deduced amino acid and nucleotide sequences of these genes from the three plant groups indicate thatAngiopteris sequences are more closely related to those of Bryophyta species (85% identity on average) than to those of seed plants (76% identity on average), supporting a hypothesis that the Bryophyta and Pteridophyta diverged more recently from one another than their common progenitor diverged from that of the Spermatophyta.