18S Sequence-Structure Alignment for Haptophyte Phylogeny

A subset of 396 nearly complete 18S ribosomal RNA sequences and 224 ITS2 sequences for haptophyte microalgae, curated by Louisa Ridder and published on figshare in March 2026. The data integrates secondary structure information to enhance phylogenetic resolution and clarify evolutionary relationships within this ecologically significant lineage.

Use Cases

• Constructing maximum likelihood phylogenies based on 18S sequence-structure data.
• Comparing phylogenetic outcomes between sequence-only and sequence-structure approaches.
• Distinguishing closely related species using ITS2 sequence data.
• Analyzing conserved and variable features in 18S and ITS2 secondary structures.
• Testing the impact of taxon sampling and methodological choices on phylogenetic inference.

Strengths

• 396 representative 18S sequences curated from over 40,000 available sequences.
• 224 ITS2 sequences compiled for comparative analysis.
• Data integrates secondary structure information to reduce phylogenetic artifacts.
• Published under a CC-BY-4.0 license for open reuse.

Limitations

• ITS2 data presents alignment challenges due to high sequence variability and length differences.
• ITS2 data has limited taxon representation and is unsuitable for resolving deep relationships.
• Some backbone relationships in the 18S phylogeny remain weakly supported.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Taxon sampling reduced from available sequences, with comparative modeling and homology-based structure prediction.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-19 17:23:00