Divergence time,historical biogeography and evolutionary rate estimation of the order Bangiales (Rhodophyta) inferred from multilocus data

Bangiales is the only order of the Bangiophyceae and has been suggested to be monophyletic. This order contains approximately 190 species and is distributed worldwide. Previous molecular studies have produced robust phylogenies among the red algae, but the divergence times, historical biogeography and evolutionary rates of Bangiales have rarely been studied. Phylogenetic relationships within the Bangiales were examined using the concatenated gene sets from all available organellar genomes. This analysis has revealed the topology((( Bangia, Porphyra) Pyropia) Wildemania). Molecular dating indicates that Bangiales diversifi ed approximately 246.40 million years ago(95% highest posterior density(HPD)= 194.78–318.24 Ma, posterior probability(PP)=0.99) in the Late Permian and Early Triassic, and that the ancestral species most likely originated from eastern Gondwanaland(currently New Zealand and Australia) and subsequently began to spread and evolve worldwide. Based on pairwise comparisons, we found a slower rate of nucleotide substitutions and lower rates of diversifi cation in Bangiales relative to Florideophyceae. Compared with Viridiplantae(green algae and land plants), the evolutionary rates of Bangiales and other Rhodophyte groups were found to be dramatically faster, by more than 3-fold for plastid genome(ptDNA) and 15-fold for mitochondrial genome(mtDNA). In addition, an average 2.5-fold lower dN/dS was found for the algae than for the land plants, which indicates purifying selection of the algae.