Abstract

Flagellin, a flagelar subunit protein, presents four structural domains, two of which are highly conserved among bacteria, while the other two tend to be variable. Flagellins have been used as phylogenetic molecular markers, mainly intra-specifically. In this work, a marker comparison for bacterial phylogenetic reconstruction was performed by means of five different DNA sequences: the conserved and complete sequence of flagellins, standard 16S rRNA and recA molecular markers, as well as coding S16 sequence. Results showed that flagellin complete sequence may be an accurate phylogenetic marker for phylogenetic reconstruction among bacteria.

Key words: Flagellin, molecular phylogenetic marker, tree comparison.