Phylogeny inferred from codon usage pattern in 31 organisms

We employed the Codonusage database to analyze the codon usage pattern in 31 organisms from all the main biological taxa. We tested the similarity in codon usage pattern between each organism and all the others by the Pearson linear correlation coefficient. The 465 values obtained were located in a 31 x 31 triangular matrix from which a correlation distance matrix was calculated. An evolutionary dendrogram was then constructed from these distances. The results showed a fair correlation between codon usage patterns and phylogenetic relationships, at least for organisms which diverged in rather recent times (end of Jurassic--beginning of Cretaceous).