Comparison between a moRNA-tree that is based on species’ ensemble distances (left) and the out-of-tRNA phylogenetic tree (right). The out-of-tRNA phylogenetic tree is based on 16S RNA genes of 74 archaeal species (see Supplemental Information S6). The colors of the lines reflect the clusters obtained from cutting the moRNA phylogenic tree (left) to get 15 clusters (this number was chosen after evaluating the Bk-plot as providing a good descriptive coloring). Baker's Gamma correlation between the two trees is 0.727 (P-value < 0.0001). The crossing arrows indicate cases in which species were bundled in the moRNA-tree differently from the 16S-based tree. Note, however, that these crossing arrows do not allow for an interpretation of the exact evolutionary process that occurred (such as horizontal gene transfer). The significant similarity of the trees, in this analysis, might imply that the moRNA code is not conserved, but rather reflects some of the evolutionary speciation process.
