Haptophyte Phylogeny: 18S rRNA Sequence-Structure Alignment Data

396 representative 18S rRNA sequences and 224 ITS2 sequences were compiled from over 40,000 available entries to study haptophyte evolution. Louisa Ridder applied a sequence-structure phylogenetic framework, integrating secondary structure information to enhance alignment and reduce artifacts. The resulting maximum likelihood tree offers a reliable depiction of phylogeny, though some backbone relationships remain weakly supported.

Use Cases

• Constructing phylogenetic trees based on 18S rRNA sequence-structure alignments.
• Comparing phylogenetic outcomes between sequence-only and sequence-structure approaches.
• Distinguishing closely related haptophyte species based on ITS2 sequence data.
• Analyzing the impact of taxon sampling and methodological choices on phylogenetic resolution.
• Investigating conserved and variable features in 18S and ITS2 secondary structures.

Strengths

• Dataset includes 396 curated 18S rRNA sequences, representing a significant reduction from over 40,000 available entries.
• Compilation includes 224 ITS2 sequences for comparative analysis.
• Data is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, allowing for open reuse.
• Methodology integrates secondary structure information, which improved alignment quality and reduced phylogenetic artifacts.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• ITS2 data presented alignment challenges due to high sequence variability and limited taxon representation.
• Some backbone relationships in the phylogenetic tree remain weakly supported.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Taxon sampling reduced available sequences; sequences were aligned with secondary structure information.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-19 17:22:59.