Data from: Untangling the early diversification of eukaryotes: a phylogenomic study of the evolutionary origins of Centrohelida, Haptophyta, and Cryptista

Assembling the global eukaryotic tree of life has long been a major effort
of Biology. In recent years, pushed by the new availability of
genome-scale data for microbial eukaryotes, it has become possible to
revisit many evolutionary enigmas. However, some of the most ancient
nodes, which are essential for inferring a stable tree, have remained
highly controversial. Among other reasons, the lack of adequate genomic
datasets for key taxa has prevented the robust reconstruction of early
diversification events. In this context, the centrohelid heliozoans are
particularly relevant for reconstructing the tree of eukaryotes because
they represent one of the last substantial groups that was missing large
and diverse genomic data. Here, we filled this gap by sequencing
high-quality transcriptomes for four centrohelid lineages, each
corresponding to a different family. Combining these new data with a broad
eukaryotic sampling, we produced a gene-rich taxon-rich phylogenomic
dataset that enabled us to refine the structure of the tree. Specifically,
we show that (i) centrohelids relate to haptophytes, confirming Haptista;
(ii) Haptista relates to SAR; (iii) Cryptista share strong affinity with
Archaeplastida; and (iv) Haptista + SAR is sister to Cryptista +
Archaeplastida. The implications of this topology are discussed in the
broader context of plastid evolution.