A multi-locus time-calibrated phylogeny of the brown algae (Heterokonta, Ochrophyta, Phaeophyceae): Investigating the evolutionary nature of the "brown algal crown radiation"

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Funding Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Tristan Le Goff, Alan Millar, Kathy Miller, Richard Moe, Claude Payri, Akira Peters, Nathalie Simon and Nick Yee for their kind supply of silica-gel dried brown algal samples. We thank the Computational biology service unit of the Cornell University (http://cbsu.tc.cornell.edu/) for making available online their MrBayes and BEAST cluster facilities. Thomas Silberfeld is most grateful to Michael Manuel (UPMC) for enlightening scientific discussions, Marie-Lilith Patou and Julien Lorion for their assistance with the molecular dating methods, Anna Plassart and Lucie Bittner for their undivided support. Heroen Verbruggen thanks Stefano Draisma and Steve LoDuca for sharing their insights and opinions about brown algal fossils. The molecular work was undertaken at the "Service de Systematique Moleculaire" of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (UMS 2700); we are grateful to Annie Tillier, Josie Lambourdiere and Celine Bonillo for their help and advice in the molecular lab. Finally we thank two anonymous referees for their thorough revisions and constructive criticism on a first version of the manuscript. This work was supported by the "Consortium National de Recherche en Genomique"; it is part of the agreement No. 2005/67 between the Genoscope and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle on the project "Macrophylogeny of life" directed by Prof. Guillaume Lecointre. Thomas Silberfeld benefited of a grant from the French 'Ministere de l'enseignement superieur et de la recherche'.