Learning Exercise
Primate Phylogenetics
Students will use human, neanderthal, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan D-loop mitochondrial sequences to perform a sequence alignment.
These aligned sequences will then be use to generate a phylogenetic tree.
These aligned sequences will then be use to generate a phylogenetic tree.
Course: Molecular Biology, Evolution
- Material:
- Primate Phylogenetics
- Date last modified:
- September 28, 2000
- Created by:
- Scott Cooper
- License:
-
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Students use DNA sequences from Human, Neanderthal, Chimpanzee, Gorrilla and Orangutan mitochondrial D-loop to perform a... see more
Exercise
A phylogenetic tree is a type of graph that scientists use to classify related
organisms. Traditionally these trees were created using physical traits of
organisms such as bone structure, beak shape, etc. More recently molecular data
has been used to support and refine these phylogenetic trees. This is done by
aligning DNA sequences for a particular gene from several organisms and then
applying a program to examine the number of mutations that have accumulated
between these sequences. The more accumulated mutations, the more distantly
related the two species.
Recently, scientists were able to PCR amplify regions of mitochondrial DNA from ancient
neanderthal bones. These two sequences are now available for you to analyze.
In this exercise you will use DNA sequences from five primates to generate a
phylogenetic tree.
The exercise is found at the URL given above.
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/GenWeb/Evol_Pop/Phylogenetics/Exercise/exercise.htm
organisms. Traditionally these trees were created using physical traits of
organisms such as bone structure, beak shape, etc. More recently molecular data
has been used to support and refine these phylogenetic trees. This is done by
aligning DNA sequences for a particular gene from several organisms and then
applying a program to examine the number of mutations that have accumulated
between these sequences. The more accumulated mutations, the more distantly
related the two species.
Recently, scientists were able to PCR amplify regions of mitochondrial DNA from ancient
neanderthal bones. These two sequences are now available for you to analyze.
In this exercise you will use DNA sequences from five primates to generate a
phylogenetic tree.
The exercise is found at the URL given above.
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/GenWeb/Evol_Pop/Phylogenetics/Exercise/exercise.htm
Additional Information: http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/GenWeb/Evol_Pop/Phylogenetics/Exercise/exercise.htm