Part I: Learning about molecular phylogenies
1.
What is the basic assumption underlying a molecular phylogeny?
Why must we distinguish between gene trees and species trees?
2.
3.
Why don't genes always evolve by a series of bifurcations (i.e., by a series of single
base changes)?
4.
What are the four steps to constructing a molecular phylogeny?
5.
What is an orthologous sequence?
6.
What is a paralogous sequence?
7.
What is a xenologous sequence?
8.
Which type of sequences should you use for a species phylogeny?
9.
What is the difference between multiple sequence alignments to discover motifs, etc.,
vs for constructing phylogenies?
10.
Why is Clustal W not a very good choice for constructing species phylogenies?/n10.
Why is Clustal W not a very good choice for constructing species phylogenies?
11. Please use the supplemental material on the links page to answer the following
questions.
What is a phylogenetic tree composed of?
What is the difference between rooted and unrooted phylogenetic trees?
What are the two major groups of analyses used to examine phylogenetic
relationships?
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What is a paraphyletic grouping?
What happens if a multiple alignment is poor?
What is the best way to deal with parts of an alignment that are uncertain due to gaps?
What sorts of phylogenies are best constructed using DNA sequence alignments?
What sorts of phylogenies are best constructed using protein alignments?
What sorts of phylogenies are best constructed using ribosomal RNA sequence
alignments?
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What is a homoplasy?
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Why can't we simply construct all possible trees, score each one, then pick the one
with the best score?
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Fig: 1
Fig: 2
