Ribosomal RNA nucleotide sequence: a comparison of newer methods used for its determination, and its use in phylogenetic analysis

Abstract

Phylogenetic analysis has changed dramatically over the last few years as a result of the introduction of new molecular biological techniques. One of these, ribosomal RNA sequencing, is being used to infer higher-order relationships by laboratories around the world. In this paper we describe and then compare three methods that can be used to give at least partial sequences of ribosomal RNA, and describe how they can be used to provide data for phylogenetic analysis of taxa at different taxonomic levels.