Terminology you should know
similarity . relationship . metamorphosis . homology . criterion of location . criterion of specific quality . criterion of continuity . convergence . synapomorphy . similarity matrix . Principal Component Analysis . discrete and distance based algorithms . Maximum Parsimony . Neighbour Joining . bootstrap . outgroup . DNA Barcoding . Taxon Gap . microsatellites
Concepts you should know, be able to explain, and remember
- You can give examples for metamorphosis and explain the link to homology
- You can explain and name homology criteria with examples and apply them to a given case
- You can explain and name homology criteria with examples and apply them to a given case
- You can decide, when to use a discrete and when a distance-based algorithm
- You know, how to root a phylogenetic tree
- You can explain, which type of marker is suited for which type of question
To think about
- Can you use the 16S rRNA marker to do molecular phylogeny of plants?
- Can you mix sequence data with morphological traits for doing a phylogenetic tree? If so, how?
- Can you use Maximum Parsimony to analyse microsatellite data?
- How can you root a tree for a given taxonomic group? Make a suggestion using the Rosaceae as examples.
- Our colleagues at the CVUA Freiburg use meanwhile DNA barcoding to detect illegal meat imports. They insert the sequences into BLAST and often get e-values that are similar for different candidate species (e.g. 96% kangoroo, 96% oppossum in case of illegal meat imports). Can you give them some advice?
To read and deepen
- A DNA barcode for plants. PNAS paper
- Detecting surrogation of seed material in kiwicha (Peruvian Amaranth). Kanbar et al. 2022