phylogeny and it's uses ...
Phylogenetics is the study of the evolutionary relationships between different organisms. Using homologous genes and traits, evolutionary relationships between organisms are able to be mapped out and laid out in a more visualizable way, most commonly through phylogenetic trees, such as the one to the right. [1] This image represents two ways to draw the same tree and represents the evolutionary relationships/progression of these species. It is seen that species A and B both have a common ancestor at the point where their two lines intersect, and the same for species C and D. The common ancestor of all of these species is seen by the farthest back intersection of the lines and is where the species diverged from each other in the past based on some large structural or genetic difference.
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* Trees like these utilize genetic data to provide insight on evolutionary relationships between species and show where species diverged from each other.
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Discussion
Looking at the phylogenetic tree for FAA helps to show the evolutionary history and relationship between these organisms that all hold the same gene and protein. It can be seen that the arabidopsis thaliana is first seen to have this gene (out of the selected model organisms) and then remained important throughout many different types of organisms, including plants, worms, amphibians, and mammals, showing it's true importance biologically. The tree helps to visualize the more commonly related species and allows us to analyze the proteins significance in a different way.
references
[1] Gittleman, J. L. (2024, March 22). phylogeny. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/phylogeny
[2] Koichiro Tamura, Glen Stecher, and Sudhir Kumar (2021) MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38:3022-3027
[2] Koichiro Tamura, Glen Stecher, and Sudhir Kumar (2021) MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38:3022-3027
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW- Madison.