ADVANCED BIOLOGY NOTES 4/5/05 PHYLOGENETIC TREES/CLADOGRAMS

The evolutionary history of a group of organisms is called phylogeny. A phylogenetic tree, or cladogram, is a diagram that traces the evolutionary relationships as best they can be determined. o Phylogenetic trees are constructed by using many types of evidence, such as DNA similarities, morphological characteristics, etc. o Even the best trees only represent the most likely evolutionary relationships based on the available evidence.

SYSTEMATICS

Systematics is the study of biological diversity and its classification. Taxonomy is the identification and classification of species. Systematists attempt to use taxonomy to arrange organisms in categories that reflect their phylogenetic relationships. Each species is given a scientific name and classified into a number of categories: o Domain o Kingdom o Phylum o Subphylum o Class o Order o Family o Genus o Specific name Each proper name in the taxonomic hierarchy is called a taxon (plural, taxa). Classifying species into taxa requires judgment calls, and is often debated. Classification schemes are subject to revision when new information becomes available. One of the best sources of information about phylogenetic relationships is homologous structures, structures with different functions but similar structures. However, sometimes convergent evolution can lead species from different evolutionary branches to resemble one another. In these cases, the structures are called analogous, rather than homologous.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & SYSTEMATICS

Protein comparisons o Researchers can use amino acid sequencing to determine the sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide. o A close match in the amino acid sequences of comparable proteins in two

ADVANCED BIOLOGY NOTES 4/5/05

organisms usually indicates a common ancestry. o Accordingly, the degree of similarity indicates the degree of phylogenetic relationship between different species. o Cytochrome c is a polypeptide that seems to change very slowly and therefore shows relatively few amino acid differences among closely related organisms. DNA & RNA comparisons o Researchers can compare DNA and RNA sequences from different organisms. o DNA-DNA Hybridization: measures the extent of hydrogen bonding between single strands of DNA from different species. When 2 single strands are mixed, more hydrogen bonds will form between them if they are similar. Heat is used to test for hydrogen bonding between strands. More heat is required to separate them if they are very similar. o DNA Sequence Analysis: determines the number of nucleotide differences between two sequences of DNA. o Ribosomal RNA Sequence Analysis: determines the number of nucleotide differences between two sequences of rRNA.

CLADISTIC ANALYSIS

Cladistic analysis is the scientific search for clades, also called monophyletic taxa, which are taxonomic groups made up of an ancestor and all its descendants. An important part of cladistic analysis is a comparison between an in-group and an out-group. o The in-group is the group of taxa that is being analyzed. o The out-group has a known relationship to the in-group, but is not a member of it. For any group or taxa, primitive characters are those that existed in the ancestor common to all. For any group or taxa, derived characters are homologous features that have changed from a primitive, or ancestral, condition. Parsimony is the quest for the simplest (and thus probably most likely) explanation for observed phenomena. Ex: A beaver is probably more closely related to a kangaroo than to a platypus because the beaver and kangaroo both have gestation. It is possible, but unlikely, that gestation evolved independently in both the beaver and kangaroo lineage, but this is complicated and less likely.